Signal Fire
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: This is another Clint/fem Ichigo fic. It was Tony's way of bringing on new blood from local colleges. However what was supposed to be a fun filled day turned into a nightmare when one of the kid's- a young girl and scholarship student- is gunned down in front of them
1. Chapter 1

It all started with a field trip with some kids from a local college. Tony was always looking for fresh new minds to work with. And what better way to get new blood interested in working with him than to invite them to Avenger's Tower to tour the facilities and meet the hero's that had saved the world,_ repeatedly_.

Of course, not all of the kids present were all that enthused to be there. Much less meet any of them.

And that was one of the first things that he and the others noticed about her. She didn't seem to care all that much where she was or who they were. If anything she looked...oddly annoyed to be there. Though she hadn't really said or done anything to let anyone know this.

Her body language practically screamed of her _displeasure_ to them despite the fact that she'd been nothing but civil to everyone that had struck up a conversation with her so far.

At present they were in the training room, showing off their training area and all of the equipment lying around when Tony got an insane idea to allow some of the kids to pick one of them to spar with. He figured that it would give the kids a chance to 'strut their stuff' in front of their friends and classmates and give them something to really get excited about.

The only problem was, when he asked who wanted to be first, the entire group of kids as a whole stepped back and left..._her_ as the only one standing her ground. She'd been messing with her I-pod at the time and not paying attention any. Which had made her reaction once she realized what had happened all that much funnier to them.

Even Nat and Bucky had tried hard not to laugh when she had turned her head and noticed that her friends and classmates were standing a good twenty feet or so behind her, earning not only a dark/disbelieving look from her. But also a snarled out, "You lot are just the worst cock sucking mother fuckers-" The language had been a little bit of a shocker to them.

Steve especially. But he'd managed to curb his usual reprimand towards foul language just in time to save himself from one hell of a tongue lashing if the way that she carried on was any indication at all.

Not that that wouldn't have been pretty damned funny too.

Still, once she was finished cheerfully cussing the group of uncomfortable looking/sniggering kids out, she'd then turned to them and sighed and asked what she was supposed to be doing. She'd started cussing again, this time with more _foul_ language than any kid her age should have any knowledge of, once she heard that she had basically been volunteered to be one of their sparring partners.

She'd even muttered something particularly dark and foul as she brushed past him to see what her choices in sparring partners were. And since all of the Avengers were present in the room, sans Black Panther and Spider-man, she had quiet a few to choose from.

Weirdly though, the person that she seemed to have the most interest in was Wanda though she pointed at her and muttered, "I'll come back to you." Wanda's eye brows disappeared underneath her bangs at the statement and a odd look settled on her face.

Not quiet upset, or worried. Maybe a tad bit of concern mixed with nice side of curiosity. She must have been picking up on _something_ from the kid. Because she had looked more than a little bit interested in her from the moment that she had walked through the damn door.

Bruce was up next. Though the kid simply muttered, "Too easy." Earning more than an bemused look from the good doctor before she moved on.

Tony merely got a roll of her eyes. Nat got a oddly gleeful, wide grin and a comment along the lines of, "_That would be fun_." Earning her a smile from amused the red head before she stopped in front of him for a moment.

"How good are your reflexes?" It seemed like a weird question for someone to ask him. But he answered anyways.

"Pretty damn good."

She nodded her head, her turquoise colored eyes looking him over appraisingly as she said slowly, "I would imagine that they would have to be in your line of work. Being an assassin isn't easy, after all."

He blinked, wondering how she could possibly know that he was an assassin. It wasn't like it was common knowledge or anything. Especially since he'd become an Avenger.

"You carry yourself like one," She said next, causing him to study her face for a moment, his expression questioning as she went on to explain. "You aren't the first assassin that I've ever met. Plus I've been watching you since I walked into the building. Assassins tend to move like death incarnate."

He blinked again, the amused look never really leaving his face because he figured that since she was a kid- she must be boasting to make herself look cool. It was simply what kids did. They embellished to look tough and make themselves stand out.

It was adorable really.

But it didn't really tell him how she knew that he was an assassin. Unless there was the off chance that she wasn't embellishing or telling stories to make herself look cool. Of course the chances of that were slim. Still... Weirder things _had_ happened.

"Which person do you think I should pick to spar with?" She asked suddenly, derailing any plans that he'd planned on as far as asking her questions.

"Huh? Oh. Well, for a sparring partner, since you seem to have limited experience, I think I'd go with the boy scout over here. Steve's a nice guy. He'll go easy on you and you'll be able to say that you sparred with Captain America and walked away. It'll make a great story for your friends over there to listen too." He said as he pointed towards the group of kids all watching the exchange with rapt attention.

"They _aren't_ my friends." The girl said. Her tone laced with annoyance and something else that he couldn't quite pin down. Anger? Maybe pain?

"Oh?" Was all that he could think to say as she reached up and rubbed the back of her neck. When she did, her shirt sleeve rode up her arm a little bit, exposing some of the previously hidden skin to his eyes and what he saw chilled his blood in his veins.

Scars.

Horrible, and overlapping in some places. Some of them looked like self harm scars and others looked as if her hand and arm just below the elbow had been removed several times by something sharp and jagged with vicious and flesh tearing teeth.

It was only for a moment or so, but for him- it seemed so much longer. However once she dropped her arm, the skin was covered again, breaking whatever little spell he seemed to be under as she turned herself to the side a little bit and her shirt collar slipped down some to expose the large and wicked looking scar there.

She was quick to tug her collar back into place. But not before he got a decent look at the pale, jagged, puckered flesh. And Jesus fucking Christ- how the hell had she managed to _survive_ a wound like that?! He couldn't help but wonder as she made her way over to Bucky and told him that she'd spar with him.

Clint's eyes flickered from the kid to Nat's curious gaze for a moment in utter panic. He couldn't seem to help himself. He suddenly felt as if something was going to go horribly, horribly wrong and he needed to_ stop it_.

Nat looked at him oddly, not understanding why he looked as he did and then turned her eyes back to the pair moving away from them.

Clint moved as if he wanted to go after the two, but Steve stopped him by asking him if he was okay. Which drew Nat's attention to him again. This time a frown crossed her pretty face as she heard Clint tell Steve about the horrible scars that he'd just seen on the girl and that he was worried.

Apparently he had good reason to be. Barely two minutes later Bucky was down on his back, pinned in place by the kid's foot and the sudden sound of a gunshot echoed through the room.

The girl's body jerked slightly as alarms started to go off and everyone began to scream and run with the exception of the confused Avengers who watched horrified as crimson blossomed across the girl's chest.

"Holy-" Steve started to swear as he took off running towards the girl. Bucky beat him to the punch however. And quickly flipped himself to his feet and grabbed the kid up in his arms and turned his body so that he could shield her from further injury as Tony, Bruce and the others all made their way over to the two as everything around them seemed to fall into chaos.


	2. Chapter 2

Several hours later-

The Avengers were sitting outside of the room where the kid's injury was being treated. Each of them going over and over in their minds, just what had happened earlier.

The shooter responsible for the kid's injury turned out to have been an actual honest to god fucking assassin hidden among the college kids. And not just any assassin either.

But a fucking Hydra assassin.

A pro. Though not a very good one if he could not only leave his target alive, but be captured so damn easily too.

In his defense though, he probably thought that he'd be able to sneak out in all of the chaos. And he might have actually managed, _if_ he hadn't gotten pissed that the kid didn't die right away and run towards her intending to finish her off.

He'd gotten a thorough beatdown curtesy of himself, and Tony. Both of whom had been absolutely livid that a _child_\- regardless of her age- had been injured right in front of them on what was supposed to be a fun day away from the pressures of school.

Once the guy had been taken out, Nat and Steve had non-too-nicely escorted him to the holding cells located elsewhere in the building and then returned to see that the girl was getting taken care of.

She'd been in surgery ever since they'd handed her over to the medical team.

"I can't believe that this happened." Tony muttered for like the umpteenth time. He could join the damned club. They were all somewhat disbelieving about the day's events. "I mean, it's one thing for Hydra people to generally go after us- We're all a pain in their ass. But a kid? What the hell did they go after her for? Wanda! You seemed to pick up on something from her, can you tell us anything?" Tony asked- well, practically demanded as he looked at the young woman.

"Nothing useful."

"Then why did you seem so damned interest in her?"

"I have my reasons." Was all that she said before she went back to being silent.

Tony scrubbed his face with his hands before asking, "Someone is interrogating the bastard, right?"

"Bucky and Thor are with him now, questioning him." Steve said automatically before then asking Tony. "Will you please settle down? We'll have our answers soon enough."

"Not nearly soon enough." Tony snapped as he slowly started to seat himself when the door to the room opened and someone stepped out with blood on their gloved hands, shirt and face mask.

Everyone rose automatically, anxiously awaiting to see if the kid was alright as the doctor stripped off his mask with a heavy sigh.

"How is the patient doc?" Tony asked as he moved in closer to the exhausted man.

"She's stable. We looked for any traces of whatever was used as a bullet but couldn't find anything lodged inside of her so we simply repaired the damage to her heart muscle and then closed her up."

"And that took you hours?"

"No. The fact that she had more than a few _other_ injuries however- did." The doctor said with a dark look. "I don't know what the hell has been going on with that girl, but I've never seen anyone's organs covered in such horrible bruises and scars before. Some of them looked like they were on the verge of rupturing!"

Everyone remained silent for several heartbeats, not really knowing what to say. The new information sort of threw the lot of them for a loop as the doctor went on to say, "It's as if that poor kid has been tortured or something... And if the scars on her organs weren't bad enough, she's covered in even more practically from head to toe!"

Everyone was still digesting what he'd said before about the kid's organs. So no one really had much to say except...

"Can you tell me if the scars on her shoulder and left arm are self inflicted or not?" Clint asked. Hoping to collect as much information as possible.

The doctor let out a laugh that was far too damned dark to be anything amusing as he went on to say. "None of those injuries are self inflicted. All of them are defensive wounds that she seems to have suffered over the span of years. From what I've just seen...that girl is beyond lucky to still be alive. So whoever gave her those injuries, old and new- I hope that you find them. They deserve to burn." The man said as he handed over the kid's wallet and other personal effects so that Tony could work on digging up her information and identity.

"She won't be stable enough to move for a little while. So I hope none of you care much if you have a guest for a little while. It'll be a week or so before she's stable enough to be moved to a local hospital. In the meantime, you should see about locating her family or next of kin. She's going to need a familiar face when she wakes up."

Once the doctor walked off, Clint looked down at the wallet and stuff in his hands and decided that it couldn't hurt to at least know the kid's name. He couldn't keep referring to her as kid or girl in his mind. And it would be nice to have a name to go with the face.

Flipping open the wallet, he dug through it and easily found her ID and pulled it out and read it.

Ichigo Kurosaki. Her birthday was July the fifteenth. Which meant that she had turned fifteen almost six months ago. She was a native of Japan. And from the look of things had a green card.

Memorizing everything, he then handed the wallet and ID and stuff off to Tony so that he could research the kid and see if she had any possible connections to Hydra that would put her on their shit list.

However he kept one of the items on him.

A thick silver chain with a couple of white gold and diamond bands on it.

Studying the bands, he checked the inside of them for inscription and found the names Issun and Misaki etched onto the inside of them. Could the bands belong to her parents? He wondered with a slightly sinking feeling. If they did...then would that mean that she was an orphan?

Clutching the chain and bands tightly in his hand, he prayed that that wasn't the case. Because if it was, he wasn't all that sure that he'd be able to walk away from her. And to be perfectly honest, he wasn't that sure if he wanted to walk away from her as it was.

Which was all kinds of confusing to him.

Still...he'd be sure to return the chain and bands to her once she was awake. If only to keep her from trying to get up out of bed and go look for them. Stuffing the chain and bands into his pants pocket, he heaved a sigh and then moved to reseat himself in one of the chairs a little ways down the hall.

Until they knew why the guy from Hydra had tried to kill her, he wasn't going to move from her general vicinity.

A few minutes later, some people wheeled the kid out of the room where she'd had surgery, and he slowly got to his feet to follow them. The others had already left to do what they could to prevent another attack on her and get the information needed.

Which more or less left him to his own vices.

He had spent the last little bit going over things in his head. Their interaction...something about it nagged at him at first. But for the life of him, he couldn't figure out _why_. He kept waffling back and forth between the theory that she'd been trying to warn him of the danger in the room- and trying to ask for help.

Maybe a little bit of both?

Which still left him with a few questions. Like how had she known? Had she seen or heard something? Was someone else the intended target and she had simply gotten in the way?

Picking up his pace a little bit, he moved up so that he was walking right beside the gurney. His eyes fixed on the girl's face, studying her features.

He hadn't noticed before, but she had an exotically beautiful face and features. Yet despite that fact, she had dressed in a girl next door kind of manner that he found oddly appealing for someone her age. It had been...nice to meet someone who didn't seem to care much for dressing slutty and shit.

Seeing part of the top thin sheet tangled around one of her arms, he reached out absently to fix it. It took him a moment since there was someone in his way and he had to work around them without tripped either of them or messing up the kid's IV any. But he managed. And once he finished, he gently tugged the sheet up to her chin earning him a few _odd_ looks from a couple of the medics.

He ignored them though since he didn't have to explain himself or his actions to any of them.

Once they were all in the recovery room where the kid would be staying for a while, Clint broke away from the rest of them to go and seat himself in one of the large wingback chairs several feet away from where the bed was being set up, where he would likely stay for a time simply to observe.

He was there for maybe an hour or so once the medics left before he got a text from Tony telling him everything that he'd found on her.

Turns out, she was an orphan like he'd feared. Among other, much worse things. One of which was a small connection to Hydra that had happened when she had visited the place of her father and two younger sister's deaths.

There, in the picture that Tony had sent to his phone- was a pic of Ichigo, decked out all in black with a leather jacket on and a Hydra patch- something from an high ranking officer's uniform, tightly clutched in her small hand.

_Shit._


	3. Chapter 3

"So let me get this straight," Tony said as he eyed Bucky strangely. "You're saying that our would be Hydra killer tried to murder the girl because she's taken out several of their hidden bases and killed who knows how many people? _Alone_? She did all of it alone? As in by herself? No weapons? No back up?" Tony was starting to sound more and more like he were coming unhinged.

Which might have been funny to the former Winter's Solider...under different circumstances of course. As it was, e was trying to resist the urge to slap the man and yell at him to get a hold of himself.

"It wouldn't be the first time that someone somewhere managed to pull something like that off." Bucky said with a shrug, though deep down inside he was at war with himself. Part of him was totally loving the fact that someone else in the wide world had been kicking Hydra's ass. But the saner and more rational part of him was totally appalled about the fact that it was a kid.

Some fifteen year old _girl_\- that had picked up where he had left off. He both sort of wanted to hug her and take her over his knee and spank her for doing something so damned stupid.

It had been three days since the field trip/shooting. And while the kid was in fairly stable condition for the moment. She'd been asleep the whole time and therefore unfit to answer any of their questions.

Not only that but Barton had taken up residence in her recovery room viciously guarding her like a dragon guarded it's treasure. Which was not only weird, but strange too.

They had tried repeatedly to get him to leave for a little bit, it wasn't like they were going to leave her totally alone. someone else would have sat with her for a couple of hours to give him a break and allow him to grab some sleep and stuff. But he'd flat out refused.

But more than that- he'd actually tossed people out of the room. _Literally_. He wasn't even nice about it either! The latest victim had fled from the room, screaming in terror. And even resigned from his job.

When he'd been asked what happened, he'd stammered out that he'd been trying to give the kid a sponge bath. And for some ungodly reason, Clint had taken exception to this and threw a fucking fit. Shortly after that had happened, someone had gone to check on him and the kid and found the man carefully washing the girl's hair while humming to her.

So apparently it wasn't okay for someone else to touch the girl. But it was okay for him to?

Even Nat had found his actions more than a little bit _peculiar_. Which was why she had gone to see if she could convince him to leave the room for a while herself.

It hadn't worked.

The two had damned near come to blows before Nat had gone storming out of the room swearing in Russian. She'd been pissed ever since.

"Tell me something did...Hydra guy say whether or not the kid was fucking insane? Because form what you're telling me she is."

"She isn't insane Tony," Steve admonished the man from where he was sitting, listening to everything being said. "You saw that picture that was among the information that you sent to the rest of us detailing her families deaths. Hydra was present. Maybe even responsible for it. It's not such a radical leap to make that she went off the deep end and decided to put an end to them."

"Maybe not, but that makes her a murderer Steve."

"All of us have killed at one point or another Tony. Many of us even killed in the name of vengeance. I have. You have. Thor, Bucky, Nat and Clint. None of us are totally innocent."

A muscle ticked in Tony's jaw for a moment. One of the few outwards signs of his anger before his snapped, "That doesn't mean that she should be encouraged to keep killing."

"I never said that she should," Steve said with a shrug before then asking, "What do we do now?"

Tony huffed before then saying that since she was in the country on a green card, as well as an orphan- and due to her age and such- it would be best if someone became her legal guardian. Tony volunteered Clint since the guy seemed so attached to her already. But Steve and Bucky had another, slightly more radical idea.

What if one of them adopted her? Not because the guardian of her, but actually honest to go adopted. Steve had always wanted a family even way, way back in the day. And Bucky- had had seventy years ripped away from him by Hydra. Those were years that he could have found a nice girl and married and had kids of his own.

And even though he didn't like to admit it...he _needed_ someone just as much as Steve did. Having the kid around wouldn't be any real trouble.

Tony scoffed at them an called them both stupid. But he seemed to be warming up to the idea. Probably because he'd been seventeen when he'd lost his parents and didn't like the idea of the girl not having anyone anymore. Especially when her dad and sisters had died three months ago before she had moved to the states to attend school.

By the time the end of their pow-wow rolled around, Tony was planning to get a hold of his lawyers and see about their legal options since it was evident that they couldn't just let the girl go when she could wind up in some sort of trouble later on. No. She bore watching.

And quite possibly needed the stability of a home and new family to help keep her out of trouble.

By the time Tony walked off, Steve and Bucky were arguing about which of them would adopt the kid. Steve was stubborn, but Bucky still won that particular argument much to Steve's dismay.

Which meant that Bucky was going to be a dad. Steve was almost so overjoyed that he started teasing him right away. He stopped though, when Bucky reached out and told him in his 'dad' voice that he'd rattle his teeth if he didn't keep his damned mouth shut.

Steve hadn't even been aware that he even had a dad voice. But he complied anyways because it was damned intimidating.

Needless to say by the time Bucky left to tell Tony the good news, Steve was texting Nat about helping him plan a party of some sort to initiate Bucky into parenthood.

Nat just texted him back an almost unintelligible, _**What?! **_


	4. Chapter 4

**Jut a quick heads up- Clint's behavior is explainable. Just not in this chap. So please don't judge him too harshly.**

* * *

Once Bucky told Tony that he'd be the one adopting Ichigo, and left the man to his phone calls. He then went to where his future daughter was currently residing so that he could break the news to Clint himself in the hopes that maybe once the man heard that no one was going to be taking the girl away from the safety that they were providing for her, then maybe he'd be a little bit less inclined to try and _skin people alive_.

However upon entering the room to speak with the man, he froze up. His mind going haywire on him at the scene that he'd just walked in on.

Oh true enough, Clint wasn't doing anything...truly wrong. At least not in the conventional sense. After all, he wasn't a freak or a pedo. But walking into the room to find the master assassin sitting comfortably in a large wingback chair with Bucky's future adopted daughter resting in his lap, still asleep while the man held her- was sure to cause any man's mind to short out on him.

Icy blue eyes flickered up, away from Ichigo's face and locked onto him barely an instant after he stepped into the room. Bucky saw a flash of anger as well as annoyance in the man's eyes and almost audibly gulped at the dark look that crossed the archer's face before he growled out, "What do you want?"

It was on the tip of Bucky's tongue to say, _'To live'_. And then scamper out of the room in abject terror, but _dammit_ he was the former Winter's Soldier! He didn't run or hide from anyone.

Unless it was Nat. But in his defense, the red headed woman was just pants passingly terrifying when she was in a bad mood. So naturally, he never wanted to end up on the receiving end of her wrath.

However it was beginning to look as if Clint should be added to his very short list of people he secretly feared as well.

"Well?" Clint demanded in a harsh tone, he was quickly losing his patience with him.

"O-Oh right- Well you see, Ichigo will be staying with us from now on," Bucky said. Clint didn't even blink at him. He just stared at him with those cold, hard, unblinking eyes. "Tony is talking to a lawyer right now about the kid being adopted by someone in the tower."

"Who?" The second that Clint asked the question, Bucky almost wet himself. He just sounded so fucking pissed, as if the mere idea of handing the kid off to anyone that wasn't him was a kill worthy offense. Bucky almost whimpered and ducked out of the door.

He was sure that as long as no one saw him run away like a scared dog, that his reputation could stand to take a hit. It was for a good cause anyways. Ichigo would still be an orphan if he died.

"I asked _who_, Barnes."

Bucky damn near flinched at the way the man used his last name. No one really used his last name anymore unless they were super pissed at him for something. He hesitated for several moments and then slowly squeaked out, "Me."

Clint fucking _snarled_ at him like a rabid animal. Which made him jump a little bit no matter the fact that the man didn't move so much as an inch. Or even got up out of his seat.

Instead of rising to stomp over to him and tear him a new one, Clint merely held Ichigo against his chest a little bit tighter and then growled out, "You can't have her."

"Huh?" Was all that Bucky could think to say since he didn't know how else to respond. He was beginnig to think that Clint may have lost his damned mind.

"I said, that you can't have her." Yup, he'd lost his mind alright. Nat would be sad to know that her friend and long time partner had gone fruit loops on them. And Tony would be utterly devastated since it meant no more prank wars.

"I- You- _Just what the hell is your problem_?" Bucky shouted at him. "I'm adopting her to help give her what she needs and keep her safe you idiot!"

"I don't fucking care. She isn't yours and I'm _not_ handing her over to you." And just like that, something clicked into place in Bucky's mind. Clint's behavior wasn't normal. In fact he seemed...downright _possessive_. Almost jealous even.

Bucky felt his jaw drop open in disbelief mere seconds before he snarled out, _"Oh fuck no!" _

This was not happening. It couldn't be.

Clint wasn't the kind of person to be attracted to a teenage girl. Sure he knew that the assassin liked kids. But there was a huge difference between liking kids. And _like_, liking them.

"Barton, you rat bastard- put the girl in the bed and get the fuck out of here before I call someone to come and remove you personally!"

Clint merely gave him a look of utter contempt and Bucky growled at him threateningly. But since the master assassin wasn't feeling all that inclined to remove himself- and Bucky was a little bit scared of him. He did the only sane thing that he could think of.

Mass texted the Avengers to assemble...in Ichigo's recovery room. They'd all figure out what the fuck was going on and _remove_ Barton from the room even if it killed...well, Tony. And maybe Thor too since someone was bound to use him as a meat shield.

Clint looked down at his phone with a scowl as the assemble alert went off and then looked back at Bucky and hissed out. "An assemble alert. Really? You think something like _this_ constitutes an assemble alert?"

"I think...that you aren't acting like yourself," Clint opened his mouth to say something else to him but Bucky cut him off. "And the Clint that I know, isn't into little girls."

"She isn't that little. And she turns sixteen- which is the legal age of consent- next year. For all you know, I'm merely staking my claim until then."

"Are you?"

"No," Clint said truthfully, watching the brunette as he ground his teeth together. "I think this goes a tad bit deeper than merely staking my claim."

"How much deeper?"

Clint shrugged his shoulders. "Even I'm not sure. All I know is that something inside my heart and mind keep telling me that she's mine."

Bucky made a weird sound and simply stood there waiting while the others slowly, and gradually showed up to see what the call to assemble was for. Finally after fifteen minutes- which was Tony's fault entirely since he had come decked out in his latest suite model and ready for a damned war- everyone was present and asking/demanding answers.

Bucky pointed to Clint, who had gone back to ignoring him and was simply sitting there with an arm around Ichigo's shoulders, holding her partially upright against his torso so that her head was resting on the hollow of his shoulder.

"Tell me that that looks normal to you." He said as he continued to point at the man. Everyone gave Bucky looks of confusion and then did as he said and looked at Clint.

"I don't see anything." Steve said in a puzzled tone.

_"I do."_ Nat snapped at him, still pissed about before when she'd tried to get her old friend to leave the room. She already knew that he was attracted to the girl. He'd pulled one of his hidden gun's on her when she had asked him about his intentions. Which was part of the reason that she was so pissed at him.

He hadn't pulled a weapon on her since...well the whole Loki/attack on New York fiasco. But he'd been mind controlled then. Which had been easy to forgive. But he wasn't being mind controlled now so there was really no excuse for him to have pulled a weapon on her.

Tony was the next to speak up. "Uh...birdbrain? What are you doing to that kid?"

"He's staking a claim." Bucky sneered as Tony looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes, a frown pulling at his mouth as he said.

"Uh, how about no. Clint, put the nice girl down. _Now._"

"No."

Tony pointed at Clint and looked at the rest of them, outrage etched itself onto his face. Bruce rolled his eyes at his friend and muttered, "Way to handle this like an adult Tony."

"Fuck off." Was all Bruce got in response.

"I'm with Tony here Clint," Steve said as he finally caught on to what was wrong. "You need to put the girl down and leave the room."

"I'm not putting her down. And I'm not leaving her side. _She's_ _mine_, end of discussion." Clint gritted out from between clenched teeth.

"Uh, no. No she is not yours. Bucky is adopting her. So technically-" Tony had to pause in mid sentence when Clint slipped his arm underneath Ichigo's bottom to adjust his hold on her and suddenly stood up, and pulled a gun from behind his back.

Tony stared at the man in slack jawed disbelief and damn near pissed himself as Clint pointed his weapon at him. Sure he wasn't pointing it at his head or anything. But he _was_ pointing it low- as in below the waist. So naturally Tony was feeling...more than a little bit scared about what would happen if the gun went off.

"Technically what?" Clint asked, his tone laced with anger and something else that sounded undeniably like hurt.

"I-I-I g-g-got n-n-nothing." Tony stammered out before squeaking out, "Cap?"

"Clint, please put the gun away." Steve said as he slowly moved to place himself between Tony and possible certain death. At least this way he could be assured that if his friend actually pulled the trigger, Tony would be spared.

Clint dropped his arm back to his side slowly. Though he didn't bother to put the weapon away. Despite the fact that he'd just pulled a loaded weapon on his friends, he didn't want to shoot anyone. _Yet_. But it didn't mean that he wouldn't if they tried to take Ichigo from him.

"There has to be a reason why you're reacting to us in such a manner." Steve said as he slowly took a step forward and then stopped when Clint suddenly lifted his arm again and shot the floor right in front of his foot to stop him from advancing anymore.

Steve stared down at the bullet hole scant inches from his toes and then back at Clint with a funny look on his face as Tony and Bruce both behind him muttered. "Jesus fucking-"

"He actually shot! I can't believe that he actually shot!"

"Don't move from that spot Steve," Clint said, his tone much softer and less harsh than it had been before as he slowly tacked on. "I don't want to hurt any of you, but I will if you come any closer."

Finally Wanda couldn't take it anymore and decided to step in and use her power to manifest the girl's consciousness so that maybe she could talk Clint into putting away the gun and leaving the room before someone got hurt.

Focusing on the girl's sleeping mind, the middle of the room started to glow red, slightly startling Steve, Clint and several of the others as Ichigo's unconscious mind slowly took form until she was standing in the middle of the room surrounded by a fine red mist that swirled around her feet.

She was humming, seemingly lost in her own little world and totally unaware of them. They could hear the soft echo of her voice as she hummed. She had a pretty voice. Though none of them would dare to say it aloud. Especially since Clint seemed to be the one most effected by the soft melodious sound.

The man's icy blue eyes locked onto the girl's shimmering form and practically drank her in.

Her body was leaning back against an semi invisible stone wall of some sort with her arms and ankles crossed in a relaxed manner. She had her hair up in a ponytail that was tied into place by a wide sapphire blue ribbon on it and was wearing a blue shirt and a pair of jeans.

It took a moment or so, but she finally stopped humming and seemed to realize that something wasn't quite right and slowly opened her eyes to look at them before sighing and muttering. "Well damn." Her reaction to seeing them might have been funny if not for their need for answers concerning Clint's peculiar behavior.

Pushing off of the invisible wall, she took a step or so forward before saying in an irked tone, "I guess that the saying is true, there really is no rest for the wicked."

Everyone frowned at her as Wanda asked tentively, "Do you remember us?"

"Of course I do. And I'm guessing that something isn't right otherwise I'd still be dreaming of peaceful days long past," She gave a long pointed look in Clint's direction and frowned a little bit when she caught sight of her physical self held in his arms and slowly asked, "So...what's up?"


	5. Chapter 5

Ichigo looked back and forth for several uncomfortable seconds, still looking more than a little bit lost before slowly saying, "Okay, so let me get this straight. I got shot." Everyone nodded their heads somberly. "And had to have surgery to...live..." Some of their faces looked downright scary right then. Probably because of the mention of her injury. She filed the information away in the back of her mind for later examination and then continued. "And you're friend here started to act..._oddly_… And you want to know if I somehow 'bewitched' him?"

At least two people nodded their heads, their expressions grim. While the rest of their friends looked more than a little bit uncomfortable at the mere insinuation that she had done _something_ to the man.

Frankly she was insulted that they would even think such a thing since she had neither the ability nor the knowledge to even pull such a thing off to begin with. And even if she did, she simply wasn't the type of person to tamper with another person's mind or emotions.

Such things were considered taboo for a reason, after all. Especially since it could leave a person irreparably damaged in more than one way.

"Sorry," She finally said after thinking for several moments as to what could have caused such a radical change in someone's personality, and coming up empty. "I don't have the ability to...uh..."

"Bewitch."

"Yeah, that." Ichigo said as she decided to study the assassin from before just a little bit more thoroughly as someone started to rant a little bit. Moving from the middle of the room to stand in front of the man, she noted the way that his eyes lit up and followed her every move.

_Well, he is more than just a tad bit interested in me, isn't he?_ She wondered to herself as she finally asked him, "You feeling okay?" To be perfectly honest, she found his reaction to her more than just a bit curious. Still...she could tell that there was something off about him. So asking seemed like the best way to get to the bottom of things. Especially since given his reaction to her presence made him seem far less likely to _lie_ to her.

"I'm fine." He said with a indulgent smile.

"I look comfortable." She said lamely as she pointed to her body. He smiled a little bit more.

"Yeah. Yeah you do."

"You seem to have been taking really good care of me."

He shrugged his broad shoulders a bit. "I've been trying to. But it's been a little bit hard. Everyone is so keen on me putting you down and leaving."

"And that would be bad-"

"Because your vulnerable right now. And you shouldn't be left alone. You might wake up scared."

He seemed a little bit irked by the thought of her waking up frightened and alone. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that it was very rare for her to be scared of anything at all nowadays. But stopped once she really thought about how disoriented she likely would be once she awoke and figured that it wasn't _totally_ outside of the realm of possibility for her to maybe wake up scared. Especially in such unfamiliar surroundings.

"Okay, that makes sense. Thanks for that."

"No problem sweetheart."

"Okay...moving on. Can you tell me- in your own words- not theirs," She said as she pointed to the others. "They mentioned something about you thinking that I belong to you. Can you explain that to me please?"

"You do belong to me." He said gently but firmly. His tone leaving no room for argument.

"Yeah. They've mentioned that you seem to think that. But I'd like to know_ why_ since you don't know me any-"

"I've seen your scars," He said suddenly. "The ones consistent with torture, abuse, trying to protect yourself. Out of everyone in this room, including the seasoned veterans- you have more scars than _any_ of us combined. Where did you get them all?"

"The scars are irrelevant."

"No their not. They're important. Each one has stolen a piece of you. Your innocence, your health, your well being- even small pieces of you're life and future. Who gave them to you? I want names."

"It doesn't matter what any of their names are. Most of them are dead anyways," She said with a small shake of her head. Totally ignoring his narrow eyed look. "Now will you please explain this 'belonging to you' business." She hated to sound like she was whining. Really she did. But she was hoping that the sound of her voice coupled with the way that she repeated the earlier question would somehow get him to talk.

Her tone must have caught his attention, cause his eyes fixed on her face and for several moments or so- he didn't even blink as he said almost lamely, "Love at first sight."

Someone, one of the women from the group across the room shouted, "Love is for children!" Causing him to growl in annoyance and shout back.

"I will fucking shoot you Nat!"

Ichigo's shoulders slumped a little bit as she eyed him warily. This was getting her nowhere fast. Maybe she should think outside the box a little bit and see if that could help her to better understand what exactly was going on here. So while he was busy shouting back and forth with...uh...Nat?

She took several steps back away from him, not seeing how his attention shifted and locked on her again as he fell silent while she closed her eyes for several moments and began to shift through what information she possessed before finally coming to one conclusion as a viable answer.

_But it couldn't be_. She thought to herself in disbelief. She'd never used it. In fact she tended to avoid any possible strong wants, needs, or desires at all if she could help it. But it seemed to be the only thing that she could think of that could possibly answer why the guy was acting so strangely out of character.

"What is the Hogyoku?" She heard someone suddenly ask, and turned her head to look at the red headed young woman from before as the words, _I am_, slithered through her mind unbidden.

The woman frowned and pushed past several of her friends so that she could come to stand close to her and asked again. "What is the Hogyoku?"

Ichigo's mouth opened, and for a moment she wanted to answer her. But she couldn't so she snapped her mouth closed again with an audible click and looked around the room at everyone looking at her- she suddenly felt _very_ afraid. Which was unusual since she was rarely afraid of anything. But she was now.

Hell, the way that her heart was suddenly beating indicated that she was a scant inch from being absolutely terrified.

"What is the Hogyoku?" The woman asked again, her voice stronger than it was moments ago.

Ichigo looked as if she were about to cry as she shook her head. She couldn't tell them. She couldn't! She had already lost her family and her home because of what had happened. Because the Hogyoku _had_ to be protected at all costs- she never wanted anyone else to know about it!

She couldn't afford the risk of having the information compromised by outsiders!

Upon realizing that she wasn't going to answer her question, Wanda sighed and gave her a sad look before saying. "If you refuse to tell us- then I'll drag the answer out of you."

Ichigo looked at her with wide, terrified eyes and started to open her mouth to protest but lost her voice when the woman's hand began to glow red and she felt herself falling.

Down, down into the deepest most painful depths of her own mind...


	6. Chapter 6

**This is a flashback chap. And will probably have stuff that's...iffy at best since I don't totally recall everything from the Aizen arc of Bleach. **

**It will however explain why Ichigo was so scared in the previous chap as well as toss out a theory about what has happened to Clint. **

**Enjoy.**

* * *

"Wanda! What the hell are you doing?" Steve snapped at her as Ichigo's form suddenly vanished. Causing Clint to start giving her a positively murderous look.

She shushed him as she dug as deep as she dared into the girl's mind and then used her power to show them what she was doing. "I'm trying to figure out if this...Hogyoku thing may somehow be responsible for Clint's behavior." Was all that she said as everything began to form.

Fields, mountains, rocks and...two people? A man with long-ish light brown hair and three eyes? And the small battered and bruised figure of...Ichigo.

Clint inhaled sharply as his eyes caught sight of the girl. She looked so much damn smaller than she was now. Shorter, younger, more waif-like and petite. Lacking in any muscle that she carried now.

Even her hair was shorter. Falling just barely past her slender and boney shoulders.

She was wearing black, her clothing was torn in some places and shredded in others. Part of her shirt was gone, so much so that one of her breasts was almost completely exposed. Or at least it would have been if not for the white and rust colored wrappings around her chest.

She had blood on her skin. Running down her shoulder which looked as if it had been torn open almost all the way to the bone by something. There was also blood running down her chin, and her left cheek- just underneath her one of her eyes.

She looked tired. Exhausted and nearly dead on her feet really.

Yet she stood there only a few feet away from the three eyes man in white who was laughing at her.

"Poor thing, you're an absolute mess," He sniggered. His expression was oddly serene despite the fact that she was glaring daggers at him. "I suppose that I can't blame you. After all, you've fought so hard to get to this point. And now...I think I'll use you to test my new power. What do you think? Should I force you to your knees now? Or slaughter everyone that you're trying so hard to protect and make you beg for me to kill you?"

_"Shut up."_ Ichigo snapped at him. He looked at her oddly. Almost like she were an insect under a microscope that he'd love nothing more to dissect. "What is it with people and power? The more power you have the more you have to talk? My head is killing me after being thrown through those stupid buildings- at least have the common courtesy to not talk. And either fight me or kill me instead of wasting my damn time."

"My, my, you are a mouthy child." He said in an amused tone. "But you should be more respectful of your betters-" He extended a hand and sent some sort of glowing blue-white wave of energy at her. Ichigo just looked at him like he was crazy or something.

She didn't even try to dig her heels in or try shield herself from it at all.

The guy got a peculiar look on his face. Curious. Maybe a little bit upset and then did it again. This time the wave sent towards her was much stronger. The mountain beside her began to crash underneath the strength of whatever energy the wave was.

Ichigo merely sighed and looked uncomfortable and looked away from him for a second before he seemed to get pissed and yelled, "How can this be?! I'm supposed to be a _god_! So how is it that a mere child- a mortal girl of just thirteen- is able to stand up to me?! Just what are you anyways?"

Ichigo didn't answer at first. She just dug something out of her pants pocket- An I-pod? And slipped the headphones into her ears and pressed the play button.

Automatically the world was awash in music as he sent wave after wave after wave at her in some feeble attempt to either knock her off of her feet or drive her back or crush her. But none of his attempts seemed to work.

She just stood there with a slightly bored look on her face as he gnashed his teeth together and growled at her before launching himself at her like a missile. She side stepped him the first time. And tripped him the second time by kicking his feet out from under him and sent him sprawling to the ground on his face. The third time she spun at the last moment and elbowed him hard in the face.

The movement was so graceful and vicious that they couldn't help but appreciate the move.

The forth time he got close- he managed to almost tear her throat out with his claw like fingernails. But Ichigo didn't seem to mind in the least. She just grabbed his hand and flipped him over her shoulder and then moved several feet away from him as he hit the ground again.

By this point the guy looked pissed enough to breathe fire. And Ichigo, just smiled sweetly at him before she started to tinker with her I-Pod for a moment.

Which proved to be a mistake because the guy flipped himself to his feet so quickly that none of them could track him as he launched himself at her again- this time managing to force his clawed hand through the tender flesh of her chest and out the back.

Everyone stood there in stunned silence and disbelief as the guy tore his arm out of her body and jumped back a few feet and simply looked at her.

She just stood there with her head down. At first glance it looked as if she were unconscious on her feet. At second glance, she looked like she had just been killed. However the guy crooning, "Oh my, that move at the last moment saved your life." Before his tone changed to one of pure malice. "But you're now down a shoulder and a lung. So what do you plan to do now you little smartass?"

Ichigo's head slowly came up and she made a small huffing sound before then saying, "You're right. I am down a shoulder and a lung. But it's hardly worth crying over since it'll make this fight more interesting." She smiled at him as she pressed the button on her I-Pod again.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I pretty sure that it will just _crush_ you if I were to kick your ass in this state."

The guy gnashed his teeth and growled at her again, his expression one of pure hatred as he went after her again. He tore up the ground with how fast he was. His punches shattered mountains and rocks. His kicks devastated the landscape.

And yet...Ichigo was able to keep up with him, defend against him, and deflect his blows easily. He just couldn't seem to manage to get his hands on her again.

And finally, she somehow managed to get behind him and raised her fist and brought it down on the back of his skull with as much strength as she could manage with only one good hand. They could hear as well as see the fact that she broke several of her fingers and her skin spitting open and bruising starting to form as the guy went crashing to the ground again.

Once he was down she moved. Using her broken hand to grab the back of his white shirt and yanked him partially upright so that he was sitting on his knees before her and then slapped the back of his head.

He vomited as she said, "I punched you just hard enough to rattle your brain in your skull. You're so disoriented now that even if you could rely on your godly abilities to heal you- it still wouldn't matter. This is part of a torture and interrogation method that my dad taught to me when I was a kid."

"Course I had to learn about it the same way that you just did. It wasn't fun. My dad could be a real sadist sometimes. And I spent the better part of almost a month trying to completely recover. My dad was a total jerk about it too. He laughed himself damn near silly. I kept wishing that he'd be struck by lightening or something just to even things up some."

She didn't sound particularly fond of her father right then. And none of them could really say that they could blame her if _that_ was how she learned of this particular technique.

"Anyways the harder you're brain is rattled, the less likely you are to get back to your feet again-" She slapped him on the back of his head again and he puked all over himself. "Which means that I can take as much time as I like hurting you." She slapped him again causing him to vomit and cough several times. "But before I get started on that-" She slapped him several times in rapid succession and then simply straightened her spine a bit before then saying. "I got a little question for you."

He vomited a few more times and nearly fell over with a pained sounding groan.

"Ya, see this is what I'm sort of having trouble grasping. You're a god. The Hogyoku made you one after you absorbed it into yourself. And yet...I was just able to kick your ass." She slapped the back of his head again and grinned a little bit when he wet himself. "As you said before, I'm a thirteen year old kid. _A mortal_. Someone's little girl. And yet...I could keep up with you so easily."

"Logically speaking the difference in power and strength and ability _should_ have assured your victory here today-" She punched him in the back of the head again with her bad hand. "By all right's you should have been able to kill me quite easily. But you couldn't. So, here is my question to you._ Why do you think that is?_"

"My answer is kind of simple, I guess. And doesn't make much sense at all. But the closest answer that I have is this- I'm a guardian. My mom named me one before I was even born. My name _literally_ means, number one guardian. It's a little bit of a high expectation to live up too. But from the looks of things with you I must be doing okay. Right?" She shrugged her good shoulder and winced slightly when her injured one moved a little bit.

"No matter. Just a heads up, Aizen. But what happens next isn't going to be quick and painless for you. I fully intend to _tear_ the Hogyoku out of your body and leave you to suffer." The man made a whining sound that made her roll her eyes a little bit before she grasped his shoulder and shook him a little bit and snapped, "Shut up." He fell silent at the bite in her voice before she said. "You're a god now. So try to show a little class and not to cry anymore than absolutely necessary."

She moved herself so that she wasn't holding him up anymore and let him fall back onto the ground while she straddled his torso and quickly tore his shirt open to expose the thing that she was intending to take.

The Hogyoku was a small, tech-looking thing embedded in his chest muscle.

"You'll need to grit your teeth Aizen. Cause I'm afraid that this is really going to hurt."

The next few minutes comprised of Ichigo tearing the Hogyoku thingy out of the thrashing and screaming man with her bare fingers. It wasn't quick just like she had warned. And it had been downright brutal how she had torn it from the muscle it had been embedded in.

And then once she had it, she held it in her hand and stood up as another person appeared out of nowhere.

"Ichigo!" She turned at the sharp sounding tone.

The newcomer was a tall guy with dark grey eyes and platinum blond hair, wearing a green jacket and wooden shoes.

"Kisuke. What are you doing here?"

"I thought that I'd come to back you up... But I see that I shouldn't have bothered," He cast a glance towards Aizen who lay bleeding and unconscious on the ground before slowly saying, "You seem to have everything under control here."

"Yeah."

"And the Hogyoku?"

"I got it."

"Good," The man said in a relived tone. His hard expression softening as he moved to stand beside her. "I'll take it and then we'll go get you fixed up."

Something akin to suspicion flitted across her face the moment that he said that.

"I can't believe such a tiny thing could cause so much trouble."

"I know. But it's because it has power that-" The guy stopped talking as Ichigo lifted the thing up in her hand and then without any thought at all, swallowed it.

His jaw dropped open for several moments and something akin to anger and horror crossed his face. "_Ichigo!_ No! Spit it out!" The guy screamed as he grabbed her and forcibly turned her around and laid her over one of his arms and thumped her on the back several times. Not even bothering to try and be gentle because of her shoulder wound or any of the others.

And when that didn't work and yanked her back upright and punched her in the stomach, trying to force her to vomit the Hogyoku up. He hit her, over and over and over again trying to force her to puke the thing up.

They could hear her gasp for air, hear the snapping of bones as they broke upon impact and finally when none of that seemed to work, he just stopped. His expression one of utter _horror_ as she started to glow a soft blue and sparks began to dance along her skin.

"No, no, no, no- Ichigo…" He sobbed as he collected the girl in his arms and simply held her as she continued to glow and spark. And when the glow and the sparks finally faded, he heard her say softly.

"I'm sorry Kisuke. But to keep this from happening again... It had to be done. The Hogyoku has to be protected, no matter what."

"It didn't have to be protect like this," He whispered back in a pained tone. "You're more precious than it is. _Irreplaceable_. You shouldn't have done this to yourself just to stop it from being used again."


	7. Chapter 7

They saw Ichigo after the fight.

They saw how upset and devastated her friends and family were by her choice upon hearing of her swallowing the Hogyoku. They even saw her being examined by the blond guy from before.

They saw how he fixed up her chest, and put her into a semi coma, how he checked her body for the Hogyoku and even his breakdown when he realized that it had completely merged with every part of her being and could no longer be removed at all.

He'd yelled, screamed, cursed, shouted and then finally broken down_ crying_ next to her bed with his face buried in his hands.

They saw her dad, a guy barely in his forties- pulling her aside once she was up and on her feet again and telling her that she couldn't come home anymore. He spoke softly, his tone gentle. Though his expression was twisted in pain. He told her that the Hogyoku was a powerful device never meant for human hands, and that because she had merged with it internally- she would _always_ be a target for those looking to gain power beyond imagining.

He hugged her and told her that he was so, so very proud of her for doing the right thing. And he gave her a phone so that she could always stay in touch with him and her twin baby sisters.

He told her that even if she couldn't come home, that maybe they could meet halfway at some point so that she could still see them for their birthdays and holidays and such.

Once he finished speaking with her, he stepped back and let her little sisters spend some time with her. They went to a local cafe and had a tea party. Or at least that was what one of the younger kids called it.

Her sisters were cute kids that were barely more than ten years old.

There was Karin- the older of the two girls, who had shoulder length black hair and dark eyes. And then there was the younger, Yuzu. A sweet girl with short light brown hair and wide warm amber eyes.

The two kids chattered away at Ichigo, who just propped her chin in her hand and listened. Occasionally muttering a response to a question or comment until finally their dad showed up and took the kids away.

Ichigo sat at the cafe for a while after that, just staring blankly at the scenery around her when a couple of others showed up and sat down at her table with her.

They were a fairly large group. Some of them just kids barely older than she was. And others looked as if they were adults already.

"Kisuke told us what happened with the Hogyoku and what it means for you now..." One of them said carefully. As if bringing up the subject of her latest source of pain would in some way cause her to snap.

Ichigo merely looked at the person speaking and waited patiently before someone said in an aggrieved tone. "Only you would think of the stupidest way to protect the people of the world by swallowing an object that literally turns people into gods."

Everyone was quiet for several heartbeats before Ichigo's lips twitched in wry amusement as she picked up a crushed napkin and threw it at the guy that had just spoken. It hit him in the face and he growled at her eliciting several others to laugh at the exchange before someone else, a girl this time said.

"Uryu is right. Only you would swallow something just to keep the world safe. You know that your lucky that it merged with you, right? If it hadn't, it would have torn your body to pieces from the inside out."

"I'm aware." Was all that Ichigo said.

"So what made you think that swallowing it was a good idea?" The same girl asked in a curious tone.

"Nothing really," Ichigo said with a slight shrug. "I had a fifty-fifty chance of living or dying. Either way, the Hogyoku needed to be hidden away somewhere safe."

"Yes, that's true. But inside of you, Ichigo. Really?"

"Stop sounding like a little snot Rukia." Ichigo snarked at her. "I remember before the barrier on it was broken. Back when Kisuke had it hidden inside of you-" Ichigo said as she pointed at the girl. "It was difficult to track and even more so to find. If Aizen hadn't been such a nosy bastard in the first damned place, then the Hogyoku would have inevitably merged with you. It would have lived and died as you did. That's the entire point behind swallowing it. It lives within me. And one day, it will die with me too. Besides, I'm not some defenseless little kid. I'm perfectly capable-"

"Of taking down a god." One of the guys said somberly.

"I was going to say, taking care of myself, but whatever works."

"Well, the whole 'being capable of defeating a god' thing sounds a lot better, right."

Ichigo shrugged her shoulders again, but said nothing as someone said, "You know when you really think about it, Ichigo's stupid move makes a lot of sense. The Hogyoku in the wrong hands can cause a _lot_ of pain and suffering since it's designed to give the person wielding it- their greatest heart's desire. At least with Ichigo, we know what we're getting. She has no need for fame, fortune, or world domination. She doesn't really _want_ anything at all."

"So the Hogyoku goes unused, lying dormant inside of her until the end of her life... I can think of worse things. Ichigo's hands are far safer than anyone else's. The power would corrupt any of us."

Ichigo snorted, "You lot would use it for stupid things. Like winning the lottery or something."

"Tell me about it." The boy, Uryu said grimly as the girl from before chimed in.

"Yup. We're totally irresponsible. So really you've done us all a favor."

"Good job Ichigo!" Another girl said cheerfully as she reached out and ruffled Ichigo's hair affectionately. Ichigo swatted the girl's hand away from her and everyone laughed as she blushed and then buried her nose in a menu and tried to ignore them all.

They heard them talk like old veterans right after a war.

And maybe they were. Ichigo wasn't the only one who had apparently gone head to head with Aizen. Though she was the one to walk away the least _damaged_ by her experience. They sat and talked for hours and only left the café once the place was started to close.

After that, they simply walked around town until the early morning hours together.

Ichigo had told them that she would be staying with Kisuke for a little while. She knew that she'd be graduating form school early within the next year or so- and already planned to stick around for at least that long before she went elsewhere to complete her education.

After that she had no real plans for her life one way or the other. She did however promise to visit, and to call as often as she could. Providing that her hands weren't broken of course.

Once she told everyone her plans, every one bid her a good evening and then slowly one by one they left her alone.

Time seemed to pass, and Ichigo got taller, older. The first people to ever go after her, were Hydra. They killed her dad and younger sisters thinking that it would make her more vulnerable to being taken.

They made a deadly error. And Ichigo had spent months lashing out at them for their foolishness in an effort to show them the error of their ways.

They saw the bloodshed, the pain and utter carnage that she left in her wake at every place that she struck. She was swift, vicious, ruthless and most of all...relentless.

Injuries didn't stop her or phase her. They certainly didn't slow her down for long.

The worst injury that she had suffered so far from attacking the Hydra bases- was a gunshot to the head. She spent two hours total just digging the bullet out of her skull with her fingertips and then wrapping the wound before she was up and on her feet and moving again. The person responsible for shooting her never saw her coming.

She hung him with his own small intestines from a light fixture in a seedy hotel room where she had used some of his blood to write out a message to his Hydra buddies.

**You're time is up.**


	8. Chapter 8

After learning what they could from Ichigo's memories, many of them had a newfound appreciation for the lengths that the teen was willing go to protect the people of the world as well as innocent bystanders as everything gradually faded away and Ichigo's form reappeared.

She was lying curled up on her side on the floor, facing away from them.

"Ichigo?" Wanda said softly. The girl groaned and rolled onto her back for a moment to glare at her.

"That was unnecessary and totally uncalled for." She muttered as she tried to focus her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Wanda apologized. "But if it had anything to do with Clint's behavior then-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." Ichigo hissed in an angry tone as she slowly sat up. She looked...tired and worn out from having her memories dragged to the surface of her mind. "You just pissed away almost three years of sacrificing everything for the greater good. Thanks for that." She didn't sound the least bit happy about them knowing about the Hogyoku. Not to mention much of anything else.

Wanda flinched a little bit, but merely nodded her head and softly apologized again back and rejoined the others as Tony said.

"So the Hogyoku thingy- it can alter a person?"

"It can give them their greatest heart's desire." Ichigo corrected him. "It's like a piece of tech that acts like a genie. You make a wish on it and it makes the wish happen."

"So you basically made a wish." He sounded only a little bit accusing when he said it. Mostly because she was a_ kid_ and probably hadn't meant to make any sort of wish at all.

"No," Ichigo said with a scowl. "It would have been a moot point to swallow the damned thing to hide it and then turn around and use it. It would not only ruin everything but make my efforts in vain."

"So you did it without knowing. It was an accident-"

"Again, no." Tony shut his mouth for a moment as she went on to say. "I know myself to know that I don't want. Or desire anything. I _never_ have. It's why the Hogyoku is safe with me. There is literally zero chance that I will use it for anything."

"That's why I said it must have been an accident."

"And that's why I said that you're_ wrong_." Ichigo snapped at him. "Even if I had used it- the effects reflect the desire in every way. However the effects also wear off within a very short time. A few hours, a day at the most- and you're friend should have returned to normal. This isn't _my_ doing."

"If you didn't do it, then who did?" Steve asked worriedly.

"My guess is your friend did. And whatever it was that he wished for is so..._strong_ a desire that it's literally altered his behavior and made him just a little bit unstable."

"Wait- so your saying that Clint did this? That he somehow used the Hogyoku thingy?"

"It's...starting to look that way." Ichigo said as she cast the man in question a slightly wary look. He smiled at her and she nearly scooted herself away a little bit and turned to the others and mouthed, _"His happiness scares me."_ And had one of them, a guy with curly shoulder length brown hair, cough uncomfortably and then slowly and awkwardly used sign language to tell her that he could read lips really well.

She slapped her hands over her mouth in horror and gave Clint another wary look. But he remained as he had been before. Sure his smile was a tad bit wider, and definitely more amused looking.

But at least he wasn't pissed. She counted that as a win. _Sort of._

"Okay, so say that he did use the Hogyoku thingy-" Tony started again. "If the thing is meant to give a person their heart's desire and stuff... Then what the hell did he want? Why is he fixating on you?"

"Uhhh….." Was all that Ichigo could think to say. In all honesty, she had no idea one way or the other what the guy could have wished for or why he was fixated on her. "Y-You might want to ask him that because he could have wished for or desired any number of things."

"Alright," The guy standing against the wall with the metal arm said. "Clint, did you make any wishes recently?"

Clint cocked his head at the question and smiled a little bit more. "Maybe."

"Then what was it?" The guy with the metal arm demanded.

"It could have been several things," Clint said as he looked at Ichigo who just slowly nodded her head. "I kept thinking before that Ichigo was adorable when she was talking to me. Before the spar, ya know? And then I saw some of her scars and thought that- I wanted to protect her. Just..._wrap_ her up in bubble wrap and hide her away from anything that could hurt her." Several people groaned as one of then pointed at him and snapped.

"That was it! I bet you ten to one, that _that_ was the want or desire, right there."

Clint ignored them and kept talking, "And once Ichigo was out of surgery, and I was walking along beside her bed while she slept- I couldn't help but think that she was a very pretty girl." Someone muttered a foul oath, apparently not liking where he was going with his thoughts. "And then while I was taking care of you here- after that doctor tried to touch you to give you a sponge bath. I got really upset and thought...that you were mine and I didn't want anyone touching you. I kept thinking that because you were mine, that you wouldn't mind if I took care of you. Because you _need_ someone too. Just like I need someone to protect."

He'd gone way off of the reservation with his various wants and desires, and it was on the tip of Ichigo's tongue to tell someone to shoot him or something when she heard him say something else and then shifted her focus so that she was listening to him again.

"Wait, hold up- rewind a little bit. Could you please repeat what you just said?" She asked. Clint gave her another indulgent smile and repeated his words.

"I haven't had a family or someone to love since I was a little kid. And you seem to need those things just as much. So I wished that you could be my family. And I could be yours."

Ichigo's jaw dropped a open a little bit at the implication of the semi vague words. If he'd really wished that then there was no telling what was going to happen now. If the Hogyoku had really granted his wish or desire- then it could have altered his mind to make his wish as true as possible.

"Okay, that's...sweet," She said awkwardly. "But I need you to be very specific with me. What do you mean when you wished that I could be your family and vice versa?"

"I want you to be my wife." Clint said simply.

The guy with the metal arm growled threateningly as one of his friends grabbed him and pushed him back a little bit and started to whisper to him in an effort to calm him down.

"I want you to be my wife, the future mother of my children. I can and would protect you in ways that other's couldn't- I mean, I'm not saying that my friends are weak...but they can't always dedicate the time and energy needed to keep you safe. _I can_. I'd kill anyone that dared to touch you. Anyone stupid enough to think that they could take you from me."

Everyone, including Ichigo was gaping at him in slack jawed disbelief now as Ichigo slowly squeaked out.

"I-I-I can't cook."

"You could take lessons from Nat and Steve. Nat bakes the neatest cakes and stuff. And Steve is a great cook too. His soups and breads and pasta's are especially good."

"I-I'm a smartass." Ichigo said in a slightly weak tone.

"So am I."

"I tend to be all attitude and sass."

Clint smiled at her, not the least bothered by her admission. "I like attitude and sass. If Bucky and Tony were both women- I'd be all over them. They're nothing but attitude and sass."

Both men shouted an indignant, _"Hey!" _

"B-But I'm just fifteen!"

"You turn sixteen next year. So it would be a little bit of a long engagement. Plus we could start practicing for our first kid. You like kids, right?"

"I-I do."

"Great. You'll be such a good mother. I'll spoil you outrageously."

She squeaked again and looked at the rest of them with wide panicked eyes as the guy with the metal arm broke away from his blond friend and roared, _"That's my little girl you son of a bitch!"_ As he somehow managed to get up in the guy's face, forgetting completely that her body was still held in his arms, and punch him in the jaw.

Ichigo didn't bother to say anything else to anyone. She merely hid her face in her hands and said, "Wake me up in an hour or so." Wanda merely nodded her head grimly and then let her form shimmer and fade away.


	9. Chapter 9

Twenty minutes later, Bruce was icing Clint's face while Bucky paced back and forth like an agitated tiger as he muttered all kinds of obscenities under his breath as Tony walked back into the room.

His phone had rung several minutes ago when the two of them had been rolling around and hitting each other. So as bummed as he was to not know who had won that particular slug out- his lawyer had called to let him know that the adoption had been pushed through successfully and Ichigo was now Barne's kid.

"Everything okay Tony?" Steve asked from where he was sitting on the floor just a few feet away from Bucky.

"Everything is peachy, Cap. My lawyer just called. The kid is Bucky's and now officially a Barnes."

Bucky tripped over his own feet in shock and nearly fell on his face. The man was oddly ungraceful for someone who spent seventy years as a Hydra assassin. But then again, Tony had just surprised him. So maybe that was just normal for someone who had just learned that they had become a dad?

Bucky looked at Tony oddly and then at Steve, anxiously awaiting conformation. Because apparently he thought that Tony was yanking his chain or something. However the wide smile on Steve's face practically had the soldier vibrating in place with excitement.

"I'm a dad?"

"Looks like."

"Stevie I'm a dad!" Bucky practically shouted as he grabbed the blond's shoulder and shook him a little bit. Steve laughed at him and let him shake him some. He'd never seen Bucky so excited about something before. And he did seem to like the being a dad pretty good since he was already protective of Ichigo and all.

So really all Steve could think to say was, "Congrats Buck. I'm happy for you."

Before Bucky made a slightly panicked sound and then squeaked out, "Oh shit, Stevie- your an uncle," Steve merely gave him a slow and slightly devious smile as his best friend suddenly said, "I don't want you teaching my kid _anything_."

"I'm going to teach her _everything_."

"No! You'll turn her into a little hoodlum!" Steve merely laughed at him as Bucky let out an aggrieved sounding groan and buried his face in his hands for a moment. "I don't want my baby girl to be a hoodlum. I want her to be a little lady."

"I like her as she is." Clint said from across the room as he slowly removed the ice pack that he'd been given from his jaw and then opened and closed it a few times just to make sure that it would keep working. He was lucky that Bucky hadn't broken it with as hard as he had hit him.

As it was he was missing four molars. At least two of which he'd accidentally swallowed.

"I don't give a damn what you like Barton! You stay the hell _away_ from my kid!" Bucky snapped automatically as he abruptly let go of Steve and resumed his angry pacing.

"Well she has to start dating sometime-" Clint said, apparently not going to back down any. Which only seemed to piss Bucky off more since he let out another warning growl and started spitting out a few...dozen or so really creative Russian oaths. "And she could do worse than me."

Clint was right. But as a new father to a pretty little teenage girl, Bucky was morally obligated to _hate_, _loath_ and _despise_ everyone sniffing around his little girl. It was like 'dad code' for raising girls or something.

And apparently Steve was already taking to his role as Ichigo's new uncle like a duck took to water. He was staring Clint down like he'd like nothing more than to plant him in the ground in a shallow grave.

He glared at Clint. And Clint unblinkingly glared right back at him.

One thing Bucky knew for sure was that the archer was going to be keeping all of them hopping in regards to the girl. He was a lot like a dog with a bone. One he sank his teeth into it- he wasn't going to just let anything make him let go. It simply wasn't in his nature.

"Tony, can you make a chastity belt? One that comes with a moat and electric fence? Maybe something with a herd of raptors guarding it?"

"Seriously?" Tony asked as he looked at Bucky, more than a little bit startled by the question. "She's a teenage girl, Barnes. You can't really expect her to _not_ date."

"She can date when I'm dead." Bucky said menacingly.

"I can help you along." Clint offered gleefully. Bucky snarled at him to fuck off. Which caused several of them to roll their eyes and at least Tony to snigger a little bit in amusement before Wanda finally decided to chime in.

"Is no one worried about what Ichigo might think of all of this? She's been alone, trying to protect the Hogyoku. And while it's all well and good that Bucky intends to raise her as his own and such. Her reaction to Clint's wish wasn't exactly a positive one."

"It wasn't really a negative one either," Nat pointed out in a bored tone. "Sure she was a little thrown by his behavior and sudden desire to have her as his wife, but she didn't exactly say yes nor no. If anything she seemed to be weighing her options."

"Maybe. But when you're stuck between a rock-" Wanda pointed to Bucky, who's steps faltered a little bit again. "And a hard place," She pointed to Clint next. "A person tends to think carefully about what they can and cannot live with so that they can go with the lesser of two evils."

"Hey!"

"I-I'm not evil..." Bucky stammered out looking a little bit hurt.

"I'm not saying that you are evil Bucky. It is merely a figure of speech." Wanda said gently.

"Oh. Right." Bucky said before he resumed his pacing. Though now his steps were less angry and more...anxious? Was he worried about how Ichigo would react to being his adopted daughter now? Wanda wondered to herself when she sensed the first signs of the girl stirring.

"Oh. Oh! Ichigo is waking up!" She said as she brushed past Tony and Bruce to walk over to the bed where the girl was lying. She'd been there ever since Bucky and Clint had started throwing punches earlier. She and Steve had managed to protect her from further harm due to the fight.

Something that she was very grateful for since she doubted that the girl would have liked to wind up needing surgery again so soon.

The moment that she mentioned the girl waking up, Bucky and Clint were both standing across from each other, around the bed staring at her as Wanda rolled her eyes at their antics. She had a feeling that the two men were going to do their best to reduce the poor girl to a nervous wreck in no time at all with their fighting and bickering.

"Stay away from my kid asshole." Bucky growled at Clint as he saw him get just a little bit too close to the bed.

"Suck my dick, loser." Clint snapped at him, causing Wanda to groan and hide her face in her hands as Bucky stared at the man in utter disbelief. He might have tried to jump the bed and hit Clint a few more times but Ichigo interrupted him by choosing that exact moment to moan and try and open her eyes.

It took her several heartbeats to manage to open her eyes, and when she did it was to find three people standing over her with varying expressions of happiness, adoration and...nervousness.

"What's going on cupcake?" Ichigo asked, her eyes automatically going to Wanda. The red head blushed a little bit at the term of endearment. After all, she'd never been called cupcake before and was just a little bit embarrassed that it was another girl- however pretty- that would call her such.

"Want the long version or the short one?" Wanda asked.

"Uh...which one would get me caught up sooner?"

"The short one."

"Then let's go with that."

"Very well," Wanda said with an absent nod of her head. "Clint still wants to marry you-"

"I remember that." Ichigo rasped out sagely.

"Good," Wanda said as she grasped one of her hands and gently patted it in what she hoped was a comforting manner. "And Bucky has managed to adopt you. You are his daughter now."

Ichigo looked at her oddly for a moment as Bucky smiled and crooned, "I'm going to be such a good dad for you." in a baby talk kind of way that had Ichigo's eyes going as wide as saucers and her troubled gaze flying back to Wanda's face as the woman patted her hand again and simply said.

"It's...a thing. Don't worry, I'll help you figure things out." Before Ichigo's eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted.


	10. Chapter 10

It had been three days since Ichigo had woken up to the weird mess that was now her life. And so far...the fact that she was still trying to adjust was making things incredibly difficult for her.

In all honesty if she had known days ago that while on a field trip with her classmates- she'd be shot and almost killed and then adopted and been proposed too- she would have asked the Hydra guy to aim his weapon _higher_.

It hadn't been all bad though.

She was happy to be free of the recovery room. Though her new dad and uncle had taken turns carrying her around like she was a little china doll for the first day. She supposed it had been their way of trying to keep her from hurting herself. And while she could somewhat appreciate it. At the same time, she wasn't used to the coddling and hadn't really liked it either.

She was used to being seriously injured and slapping a puny little band aid on her wound and then scampering off to do stuff. Like fighting and kicking the crap out of people.

So naturally she hadn't taken to their overprotectiveness very well at all. She'd been wise enough not to say anything to them about it, which was probably why they had left her alone and given her a tad bit more breathing room on the second day.

Today she was supposed to eat breakfast with everyone.

And she was still sort of trying to figure out who the hell _everyone_ was. She couldn't even recall anyone's names! How did anyone expect her to know who the hell anyone was?! She wondered and jumped a little bit when she felt a large cool metal hand slip around her nape a mere second or so before she heard her new dad ask, "Ya okay doll?"

"I'm fine. Just...nervous?"

She was so nervous that she didn't actually _know_ if she was nervous. That was like nervousness times something equaling something squared! Oh god her mind was going over math equations!

"You'll be alright sweetheart." She heard her new uncle...Stev? say to her as he appeared out of nowhere to her left.

"What the- Where did you come from?"

Both men laughed a little bit at her for being startled by his sudden appearance.

"Stevie's been waiting all morning to ambush us, doll."

"Well he shouldn't do that. He might scare someone."

"I think that was sort of the point doll." Her new dad said with a grin.

"Well that isn't funny. What if someone got so startled that they had a panic attack or had a stroke or something?" That seemed to wipe the mischievous grins right off of their faces.

"B-But that won't happen." Her uncle said in a slightly panicked tone.

"Just because it hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean that it won't." Ichigo pointed out with a small glare.

"Stevie wouldn't let someone suffer like that, Ichigo. And you need to stop being mean and stressing him out." Bucky chided her.

She merely smiled deviously at them and muttered. "Tit for tat, boys."

Bucky snorted as Steve pointed at her and looked at his best friend with the most mocking outraged expression that he could muster as if to say, _Did you just see/hear what she pulled on me? _Making Bucky snigger at him as he reached out and absently pushed his hand down so that he wasn't pointing at her anymore.

"I think I've saddled myself with a little joker, Stevie."

"Yeah, looks like." Steve mumbled knowing that he'd likely be more careful about ambushing people in the halls from now on since there was no real flaw in her logic. That and she'd now made him feel just a tad bit paranoid about those things happening.

"So...what should I expect at this breakfast with everyone?" Ichigo finally asked. Her tone was just a little bit wary.

"It's just breakfast doll. You go in, eat, maybe talk some. And afterwards, everyone is going to shower you with gifts."

"Huh? Why would they do that?" Ichigo asked in a slightly alarmed tone. She didn't want presents. She just wanted to eat and then run off somewhere quiet where she could avoid people until the next time.

"It's sort of a welcome to the group thing. Just...go with it. Okay?" Steve said softly. Unsure of what to make of her reaction. He could understand her feeling uncomfortable with specific things since she was still adjusting to her new life here and all. But didn't most girl's like getting stuff?

He frowned and caught Bucky glancing at him with a similar look on his face. Apparently he didn't know what to make of her reaction either.

Stepping into the common room, the two men were quick to guide her over to the table where everyone ate and watched her check everything out. The table was already set and the food was already laid out too. It looked like whoever had cooked had pulled out all of the stops.

The food consisted of french toast, fresh sliced fruit, bacon, eggs, sausage and even some pork chops and biscuits. All in all, everything looked great.

"Hey guys." Someone greeted from behind them. Bucky, Steve, and Ichigo turned as one and looked at the speaker. It was the quiet guy with curly brown hair and glasses.

"Hey Bruce, did you finally decide to come up for air?"

The man smiled at them as he walked into the kitchen to make himself some tea before saying, "Yes. Because Tony threatened to set my lab on fire if I didn't come up to eat and participate in group bonding," Once he finished making his drink, he walked out of the kitchen and paused to look at Ichigo for a moment and then asked, "How are you doing kid? Finding everything okay?"

"Yes. I'm finding everything okay. I've not tried to escape at all." She said slowly and got lightly smacked in the back of the head by one of her new family as said person walked away muttering,

"Smartass." While the other simply laughed at her.

Bruce merely chuckled at her and then sidled up to her and whispered, "If you do ever manage to escape the mad house, take me with you."

"I can do that." Ichigo said somberly, causing the man to smile at her and then pat her on the back.

"Good girl."

Not long after that the other appeared in masses. Everyone was chatting and carrying a bag or box or in assassin boy's case, a bouquet of flowers with roots attached to them that looked suspiciously as if they had just been pulled up from their resting places.

The moment that they saw her, Bruce, Bucky and Steve- they all called out various greetings to each of them while assassin boy broke away from the group and made a beeline for her with a happy grin on his face.

Her new dad made a low warning sound of some kind that went totally ignored as the man stopped barely a hair's breath from mowing her down and then promptly leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.

"Hello darling!" He said in a sig song voice and leaned back just in time to narrowly miss being taken out by a spoon that embedded itself in the wall to the side of them. Ichigo stared at the quivering piece of silver in alarm while assassin boy merely cackled and called out, "Nice try dumbass. But you'll need something a little bit better to take me out."

He really shouldn't have given her new dad any ideas. Because then a few really big sharp knives, some silver plates with the edges sharpened to fine razor sharp edges, and a heavy crystal vase followed in quick succession.

Assassin boy somehow managed to somehow _dodge_ all of them while she hit the floor in an effort to protect herself from what she deemed 'possible' certain death.

"Bucky!" Bruce called out sharply. "Knock it off. You're going to hurt Ichigo!"

Bucky seemed to snap out of his need to shed blood as soon as he heard that and called out in alarm, "Doll? Doll, where are you?"

"She's on the floor, _hiding_." The other red headed woman of the group hissed at him in an angry tone as Wanda knelt down and tried to coax her into getting up before she got hurt since she was practically lying amongst shattered crystal and such.

"I'm not getting up. It's much safer here." Was all that Ichigo told her before she rolled herself underneath the table and made herself as comfortable as possible as Tony huffed slightly and muttered.

"Well this is already going about as well as I expected it would." Which was true, he had expected something to happen given Clint and Bucky's sudden feud. But he hadn't expected the poor kid to almost get taken out by Bucky in his mad effort to _murder_ Clint with extreme prejudice.

"Can someone please fix the kid a plate since I don't think she'll be coming out anytime soon." Tony said with a small frown.

"I'll do it!" Clint volunteered, causing Bucky to damn near climb over the table just to get at him. And he would have actually managed too. If not for Steve, and Wanda both interfering and pulling him back as Nat said,

"I'll do it. You," She pointed at Clint and said in a steely tone. "Sit down and don't _move_ again."

Clint whined a little bit and tried to reason with Nat that Ichigo was his girl and it was his job to take care of her, but the woman merely glared at him and snapped her fingers and pointed to a seat and huffed a little bit as he walked over to the chair and dropped himself into it with a pout.

Nat fixed Ichigo's plate, pausing every so often to peek under the table and ask the girl what she wanted. And by the time she was finished the girl had some french toast, bacon, some fruit, and a couple of pork chops, biscuits and some milk to drink. A nice well balanced breakfast.

Handing everything to her, Nat smiled at her a little bit as the girl politely thanked her as she took her stuff as everyone else sat down to begin their meal.

A couple of them asked her a few times if she was okay and if she wanted to join them like a normal person, but Ichigo stayed where she was figuring that it was much safer for her on the floor, underneath the table than it was up in a chair like the rest of them.

After that, everyone merely tried to include her in some of the conversation that they had going. It was small talk. Stuff like, what was her favorite color or food, and oddly even what was her college grade point average?

Of course it was right around when her school was mentioned that things took a bad turn.

Her new dad mentioned her withdrawing from school and simply completing the rest of her courses online. She got so pissed that she nearly flipped the table in her effort to get to her feet so that she could yell at the man.

"That isn't your fucking decision to make!" If anyone was startled or shocked by her sudden re emergence from under the table, no one said anything. Though her new dad certainly gave her the stink eye for yelling at him. While her uncle gave her a disappointed look for cursing.

"Mind your language, Ichigo."

"_Fuck you." _She snarled at the man who stared at her in slack jawed disbelief. "How dare you sit here and talk about my future as if I have no say in it at all. Last I checked, I was a person not a goddamn doll. I know that you have old fashioned values about how a girl should act and crap- But I refuse to be some brainless idiot just to make you happy. You have _no_ right whatsoever to tell anyone here that I'll be pulling out of school after I worked my fucking ass off just to get in it!"

Bucky grit his teeth to keep from snapping at her to _shut up _and sit the fuck down however he held his tongue knowing that she was still adjusting and anything that he said now would likely make things worse. She also probably wasn't used to people trying to take care of her.

Which he blamed her asshole biological father for.

"We'll talk about this later Ichigo," Was all that he could manage to say without letting his temper get the best of him. "In the meantime, go to your room."

His daughter looked absolutely livid as she spun on her heel and stormed out of the room without bothering to excuse herself. The moment that she was gone, Bucky sighed and apologized to the others for letting her make a scene as Steve reached over and patted him on the back while everyone else merely exchanged nervous looks.

Whatever happened next was going to be a real mess thanks to Bucky's thoughtlessness. And they were all feeling just a little bit uncertain about what they could do to lessen the possible blood shed.


	11. Chapter 11

Ichigo didn't bother going to her room.

Instead she walked right out of the tower and hit the streets. She didn't care if her absence alarmed, upset, or angered anyone. As far as she was concerned, if she had any choice at all, she would never go back to that damned place again.

Unfortunately, due to her recent adoption she didn't have any choice in the matter. Just like everything else. A total stranger had the right to run her life until she was eighteen.

And she _hated_ every damned minute of knowing that.

She got maybe half a block from her 'home' before she paused in the middle of the side walk and tried to figure out just where it was that she was going.

She could just walk around for a few hours, but staying on the main street meant that she could be found that much faster. Taking the alleyways and back streets meant that she would be inviting all kinds of trouble to find her. And contrary to what other people seemed to think- she wasn't stupid.

She supposed that she could go to the park and just hang out there. But again, she would be found. And frankly she wasn't so keen on company of any kind. Not now, and probably not later either.

_Maybe I should go to the club?_ She wondered to herself as she mulled over the pro's and con's of going to the club and maybe working off some of her aggression in a few fights.

She could possibly make a few thousand dollars too while she was there since she hadn't been in a couple of months or so.

Especially since she was a favorite of those that often took part in the illegal betting and gambling on the various matches. To date, since coming to New York, she had already made close to several _hundred_ thousand dollars already. Plus she had a nice sized little nest egg set aside for early retirement from participating in some of the more grueling matches.

And since most of the fights tended to yield almost six or seven grand in cash, then maybe it wasn't such a bad idea.

Sure she wasn't exactly hurting for money- in fact she rarely touched what she had in her account at all. It was just one of the perks of being a teenage college student who cared nothing about passing trends, dating, and so on.

She rarely had any need to use what she already had in her bank account- which was just part of the reason that she didn't bother wishing for things like winning the lottery and such. She preferred to earn her money. Even if it meant being hurt to do it.

Still...that didn't mean that she liked falling behind. In fact she was a firm believer in being prepared for everything humanly possible. And having extra funds never really hurt anyone.

Except maybe the person that she would be hitting.

So after giving it some serious thought, she decided that that was where she would go. Smiling slightly, she started walking again totally unknowing of the curious pair of icy eyes following her every move.

* * *

"I can't believe that she just left!" Bucky ranted as he paced around, his actions furious. He'd been like this ever since he'd gone to have a few words with Ichigo and found her gone. And he'd only gotten worse when he'd found out that Clint was MIA.

In fact the first thing that he'd done was run to the man's room and check it to see if she was there before coming to the insane conclusion- that she and Barton had left for Vegas to get hitched. His temper had practically soared through the roof after that and he'd stormed into Tony's lab and demanded that he ground every available airplane that he could.

He didn't care if he had to call in a terrorist attack. He wanted his kid _found_ and Clint skinned alive! Of course, he sounded like a complete and utterly deranged lunatic. But whatever. They got the point.

Find Ichigo. And kill Clint.

They could work around everything else.

So, while Bucky was scaring the shit out of the others, Tony was busy combing the footage from the camera's around the city trying to find the wayward girl. But it was getting difficult when every few seconds or so the unhinged former Winter's soldier threw/smashed something causing the genius to cringe.

"Found her!" Tony suddenly said as soon as he got a decent lead on her. Bucky had been about to break the couch next- he had it up over his head, his expression murderous when he heard Tony call out.

Unceremoniously dropping the piece of furniture, he demanded to know where his daughter was and paled a little bit when Tony told him that she was at an illegal fighting club. And Clint had obviously followed her there.

The man let out an ungodly enraged roaring sound and went tearing out of the room before Tony could even give him the address.

Steve sighed once Bucky was gone and then turned to Tony expectantly and allowed the man to roll his eyes and rattle off the address before Steve decided to go after Bucky and make sure that he reached the place without terrorizing the locals too much.

The absolute last thing that any of them needed was for the man to be on the ten o'clock evening news.

* * *

Clint watched Ichigo KO another guy with a fascinated look on his face.

His girl looked like she was having fun. Which was both good and bad at the same time. Of all the places he had expected her to go after leaving the tower- _this_ place wasn't even on his list. And for good reason since this wasn't the kind of place that he had expected a good girl like Ichigo to walk into.

The club was a sort of underground fight club that had all kinds of seedy, illegal, but most of all incredibly _questionable_ people/activities going on.

Though perhaps it should have been on his list of places that she would go since his girl was nothing but a fighter. And the fact that she was pissed enough about what had happened earlier to need to work off her aggression at a place like this spoke _volumes_ to him.

The fact that she was tearing through her opponents like they were tissue paper meant that she was spiraling out of control. If this kept up, she wouldn't just be KO'ing people. She'd be ripping their heads off.

_Literally._

Deciding to step in, Clint shrugged off his jacket and waved over the guy refereeing the matches and asked him if it would be possible to climb into the ring with the little firecracker. The guy looked at him like he was nuts, though he didn't say anything aside from tell him what he wanted to know.

Turns out- they were about to call several different people to the ring to try and take her out, and Clint was more than welcome to join them.


	12. Chapter 12

Ichigo was taking a few minutes to stretch her muscles a little bit when Clint stepped into the ring. She froze and he grinned at her. Obviously liking her reaction to his presence. She had the most incredulous look on her face that he almost laughed at her as she stammered out.

"What the- How did-"

"I followed you." He said as she abruptly dropped her arms back to her side and glared at him before hissing out,

"Creepy stalker."

"Concerned fiance." He snarked back at her as he moved to stand beside her and leaned his back against one of the ropes in a relaxed manner and simply watched her for a moment as she resumed her stretching. "You know that you're about to be stuck in a battle royal, right."

It wasn't a question. Merely a statement of fact because once the other fighters entered the ring it was going to turn into a free for all knock down drag out fight.

"I'm aware." Was all that she said as she stretched her legs a little bit next. Bending her body this way and that as Clint tilted his head to the side just a little bit to follow her movements.

_She sure is a flexible little thing._ He thought as he watched her pull off a complicated yoga-ish move that damn near had her leg up behind her head and her torso bent back at an odd angle. The mental images of testing the limits of her flexibility once she was of age almost gave him a raging hard on. _Almost_.

Instead he found himself blurting out, "Are you a contortionist?"

Because the way that she was contorting her body was just unnatural. And if Nat ever saw her bend herself like this, she would be jealous enough to try and scratch her eyes out. He was totally loving it though since it gave him some really neat ideas to try out sometime in the near future.

"I'm aware of what will happen," She finally said, having gotten tired of ignoring him for now. "I've participated in battle royal's before."

"Oh?" He said, his interest piqued by that little tid bit. "How'd you do?"

"I won. And earned a nice forty thousand dollars for the bruises and fractures and the three broken bones that I suffered."

He let out a low whistle. That had to have been pretty damn impressive given her age and all. Especially since most people that did illegal fights were serious pro's or amature's with a serious chip on their shoulders and something to prove. But then he didn't know how many people she'd been up against either and sometimes that made all the difference.

"How many people did you fight?"

"Thirty seven."

"In one go?" He stood up straight and looked at her with a slightly shocked expression on his face.

"Yeah."

"Jesus fucking-" No wonder she had earned forty thousand dollars for her efforts. Anything less would have been a damned insult. Clint thought to himself as he resigned himself to the fact that he just might wind up fighting Ichigo himself since there seemed to be practically no one that could beat her.

He wasn't all that sure that he liked the idea of having to fight her. She was his girl after all. He was supposed to protect her, _not_ knock her around.

"How many people do you think they'll toss at us today?"

"Us?" Ichigo questioned, her expression slightly startled.

"Yeah, _us_." Clint confirmed with a grim look and a nod of his head.

"You don't have to fight, assassin boy. I can take these losers out by myself."

"Yeah. No."

"Huh?"

"You're right. I don't have to fight. But I'm going to anyways because you need someone to watch your back."

"I appreciate the sentiment, but you'll get hurt."

"And you won't?"

"I'm stronger than I look."

He gave a humorless laugh as he recalled what he'd seen in her memories about Aizen before saying, "I know. But that doesn't mean that you should fight alone."

Ichigo didn't bother saying anything else to him despite knowing that he was right. There were very few things- fights and battles- that she'd ever had to actually fight alone. She'd had Chad, Uryu, Rukia, Renji, Orihime and everyone else to back her up. However the incident with the Hogyoku had changed a lot for all of them.

Protecting it wasn't their burden. And it wasn't their job either. It was hers. And would likely remain so for a very, very long time. Sure she knew that if she ever needed any of them- they were just a short phone call away to call her an idiot or even come to her rescue.

And yeah, she knew that Kisuke had likely built a portal or something by now so that they could all drop in on her whenever they wanted.

And yeah, she did miss them terribly.

But this was her cross to bear. And she was willing to go it alone so that they _never_ had to. Chad, Uryu and Orihime were kids like her and each of them had followed her from the time she went to save Rukia. They deserved some peace for once.

She felt callus roughened fingers brush the curve of her cheek and jumped a little bit. "Whoa! Calm down," Clint said the second that he felt/saw her jump. "You had a tear running down your face." He explained as she reached up to absently run her own fingers along the skin that he'd just touched.

Once she finally settled down again he couldn't keep himself from asking, "What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing."

"I don't know, you looked like you were a million miles away just now."

"Stop prying," She said in a slightly irked tone that had his eyebrows disappearing underneath his bangs. "My thoughts are my own and aren't something to be delved in whenever you want."

"I know that," Clint said gently before awkwardly saying, "I just thought that you might want to talk about whatever was making you cry."

Ichigo didn't say anything more for the time being.

* * *

"This is the place?" Bucky asked as he and Steve walked past a guy getting a blow job from a platinum blond out in the open. Which was all kinds of uncomfortable for him. And Stevie...well, his jaw hadn't quite been picked up off of the floor just yet.

But that was only because they had been propositioned by an eighteen year old with her tits hanging out while she had been getting fucked from behind.

Steve merely made some weird gibberishy sound and Bucky rolled his eyes as the man froze up upon seeing some new and weird display of bare skin and fucking and Bucky had to reach out and grab him by the scruff of the neck and pull him along behind him.

"Remind me never to take you to an actual honest to god whore house. You might not ever leave with your mind intact." He muttered in bemusement as Steve gave him a slightly panicked look.

More than seventy years spent on the ice and the man still couldn't speak to girls worth a damn. It was downright _pathetic_ for someone like Steve to freeze up like a deer caught in the headlights whenever he saw someone exposing a little too much cleavage or something.

Bucky feared that his friend would remain a virgin forever at this rate.

And the moment that the thought flitted through his mind, he was reminded of just _why_ they were there and growled in a dark tone as his amusement quickly fled. "That fucking girl is _so_ grounded."

It would shock him if she ever saw the light of day after a fiasco like this one. Truly it would.

And he better not find her fucking Clint or the man would die screaming! He refused to become a grandfather quite this soon. His ego wouldn't be able to handle such a serious blow.

_**"Calling all fighters, calling all fighters- Anyone participating in the battle royal needs to make their way to the ring now. The battle royal match will begin in seven minutes. Also anyone placing bet- please do so before the start of the match. Thank you and good luck." **_

Bucky's head snapped up the moment that the announcer's voice sounded over the building's speakers. If he were a betting man, then that's where he'd bet his wayward daughter was. Hissing out something particularly foul, he dragged Steve behind him as he picked up his pace.

There was no way that he was allowing his teenage daughter to take part in an illegal fight. Especially not a battle royal where she would be facing more than one or two people and ran a much higher risk of being injured.

Luckily the two of them managed to reach the ring in time to find Ichigo. And Clint by extension since the man seemed to have glued himself to the teens side.

Unfortunately however, as Bucky started to climb into the ring to drag her out of it- the fence started to come down and before he could grab her- locked into place. Effectively trapping him, Clint, and Ichigo in the ring with nearly fifty other guys who all looked as if they did horse steroids for a living.

_Son of a bitch._

Now how the hell was he supposed to get his little girl out of here before all hell broke loose? He wondered as he glared at the metal fence trapping them all in the ring.


	13. Chapter 13

An hour later-

Clint lay stretched out on his back on the couch with an ice pack pressed to his aching jaw, eating up the attention that he was getting from Ichigo while Bucky glowered darkly at the girl from over Steve's shoulder while he pressed his own ice pack to his own bruised and bloody face.

He was still having a hard time comprehending what exactly had happened at the fight club.

He knew that once everything was said and done, he, Clint and Ichigo had been the last ones standing. But his mind was having a hard time wrapping itself around the fact that his own kid- his _daughter_\- had kicked his fucking ass. In all honesty, he didn't seem to get just why it had happened.

He was the former Winter's Soldier after all. He was a highly trained assassin. He should have been able to fend off his own kid! And yet...he hadn't. And he was trying to figure out if it was because it had been her that _had_ beat the shit out of him. Or if maybe he'd suddenly been dropped into the Twilight Zone or something.

Clint wasn't exactly in much better condition than he was. Which was weird considering that she'd barely tapped him with her fist. But then again, his face was still fucked up from fighting with him the other day...so...maybe she'd known that a tap was all it was going to take.

She certainly couldn't have played favorites.

He refused to believe that his own kid would like Barton more than him. And if she was playing favorites...well, she'd never see the outside world again until she was in her sixties. He'd be damned sure of it.

"I can't believe that you beat the shit out of me," Bucky griped. "Aren't kids supposed to respect their elders?"

"Well," Clint said with a slight flinch, before continuing on. "In her defense, Bucky- you did walk up behind her. That alone was a huge mistake."

Bucky tried not to cringe at the implications of what he'd done. Especially when they'd been locked in a fighting ring with so many other people. But he couldn't quite mange to hold the cringe back as much as he had hoped.

As much as it galled him to think, Clint was right. Walking up behind her in that kind of setting _had_ been a mistake. A mistake that he was paying for dearly if the bruising and multiple fractured bones, possibly fucked up ribs, and ruptured spleen were any indication at all.

"I can't believe that she managed to beat the two of you damn near senseless and win several _million_ dollars," Tony said dryly as he shook his head. He was still having some issues believing shit too. "What do you plan to do with your earnings kid?" He asked curiously, earning a pissed off growl from Bucky before then saying excitedly, "_Oh!_ You have to invest it in my company! I can quadruple it overnight!"

"She's giving the money away." Bucky said automatically. Not wanting her to keep the illegally earned money in her possession.

"Fuck you," Ichigo snapped automatically. Earning a look of utter shock from her new dad as well as a few others in the room. Including her new uncle Steve. "I beat the crap out of people and risked my life and limb for that money. I'm keeping it. Besides, I've had enough of you saying what I will and won't do for one day. It's part of the reason that you're currently covered in bruises. So kindly_ fuck off_."

Clint and Tony busted out laughing while Bucky made a weird outraged, strangled sound.

"Ichigo, Bucky is your father. He had a legal right-" Steve started to say, but was cut off by her.

"That may be so, but a majority of the money that I have, was earned in fight clubs that my biological father wanted me to participate in. I've been doing this since I was ten. My dad put everything that I earned aside to invest in the clinic, a college fund, and other things. I even put money aside for my sister's to use if they needed too. Fighting is one of the absolute jobs skills that I have that may actually come in handy in the future."

"It's what my dad and sisters were the most _proud_ of me for. So don't you dare sit there and think you have any right to tell me what to do! I won't stand for it. I don't give a damn who you are!" She hissed at Bucky angrily before she stood up and walked- yes walked- the girl didn't run anywhere.

It was something that they had noticed right off the bat about her.

No matter how uncomfortable, or angry, or sad she was- she didn't run away. She _walked_. It was a lot like how she didn't yell. She hissed, growled and snarled, but she didn't yell or shout.

It was as if she couldn't stand to.

Which was something that even Tony and Bruce thought was just a tad bit weird.

Once she was gone, Bucky let out a tired sounding sigh and let the tension in his body drain away a little bit as he sagged slightly in his seat. "Damn Barnes, you really have a way with pissing the kid off." Tony said, his expression surprised.

"Piss off Stark." Bucky muttered tiredly. "I don't get it, what the hell is she so pissed about? Is she going thought some sort of rebellious phase?"

"You can't possibly be that dumb." Clint muttered as he shifted the ice pack on his face a little bit so that he could glare at the man.

"Bucky isn't dumb, Clint." Steve muttered.

"Oh I know that he isn't. Which is why it's so damn startling that he doesn't seem to realize why Ichigo is so pissed right now. I mean, shit- I'm not even a father and even I know that he's crossed some damned important lines."

"What lines?" Tony asked curiously. Bucky would have asked the same question, if he wasn't so busy grinding his teeth together so hard that he tasted _blood_.

"The whole pulling out of school and stuff. Her reaction to the news wasn't exactly favorable. Which means that he didn't bother to so much as talk to her about school any. He just assumes that she can finish up her classes online. But she has a scholarship, and a lot of those classes have to be taken in person or she can't _graduate_. which would make all of the hard work that she's done so far- in vain."

"What exactly is she going for anyways?"

"Business. She's trying to get a business degree. As well as taking some creative writing classes, and nursing classes on the side. She might be able to get the writing and business degree's online. But a nursing degree requires specific, hands on learning. The class is going to be taking a field trip to a nursing home next week. She's already signed herself up for it." Clint said as he settled back down. "I've checked out her computer history and stuff and found that she has a really long list of stuff that she's scoping out."

"Stuff? For what?"

"Potential business ventures." Clint said with a small smile. Secretly proud of the fact that his girl was planning such awesome stuff like she was. "I've seen her scoping out some local places online. Some art galleries, clubs, restaurants and stuff. She has a _lot_ of cool notes and suggestions about how to bring in more people and stuff. She even drew up some floor plans for a few of them."

"Several of them are even a free clinic that she's wanting to put somewhere in Queens. She even has a name for them already. The Rogers and Barnes clinic's. They would specialize in helping veterans with really bad PTSD and stuff. She was going to ask you guys, once she had everything in place, to help her advertise them."

Bucky got a funny look on his face and had to blink back the sting of tears as Steve looked at him and gave him a small smile.

"No wonder being at school is important to her. She sounds like she's going to be one hell of a business woman." Tony said with a knowing grin. He'd be cornering the girl as soon as he could to see if she needed any help in getting started. Clint huffed a small laugh of his own before slowly saying.

"Yeah, she does."

Bucky set his ice pack aside for a moment and scrubbed his face with his hands before then saying, "I'm going to have to apologize-"

_"Grovel."_ Both Clint and Tony said in unison.

"_Apologize-" _Bucky snapped at them without any real heat behind the word, despite knowing that the two were likely right. He would probably have to grovel. "To her for not thinking about her feelings any before I opened my fat mouth."

"That might be a good idea." Steve said softly.

"Is it weird that I'm both proud of her and pissed too?"

"Not really." Steve said as he gave his shoulder a slight squeeze before saying almost excitedly, "She wants to open clinics for vets!"

"I know."

"She wants to name them after us."

"I know. It's..."

"Sweet." Steve supplied helpfully.

"Yeah, that."


	14. Chapter 14

Ichigo spent the better part of the rest of the day avoiding everyone.

Which was both a little bit funny and exasperating since Bucky had thought that he'd lost her again when he'd gone to apologize to her for being a jerk. And had somehow wrangled _all_ of them into trying to help him them find her. Even poor Bruce got wrangled into helping. He had mumbled and grumbled the whole time about being dragged away from his 'special' brownies.

But he'd helped just the same.

Luckily for them, Clint had finally spoken up and had told Bucky that Ichigo was likely on the roof messing with one of Tony's collectable guitars. Since it was just one of her hobbies to help her destress.

Tony had screamed upon learning about the guitar that she had grabbed from his lab- and had wanted to go and take his collectable back. But hadn't got further than the door when Clint asked Friday to pull up a video feed of Ichigo.

Everyone had froze up when they'd heard the first few strings of the metal version of The Devil Went Down to Georgia play over the speakers.

Clint had heard her play a few tunes off and on over the past few days since leaving the infirmary and knew that she was good. But he hadn't expected her to be quite _that_ good at something that took people years and years of practice just to do. Not only that, but she was singing too.

Her voice was far too sweet to pull off the tone needed for the music that she was playing, but at least it looked like she was having fun. And the song that followed the first one was way slower and far better suited for her voice.

Tony made a weird sound as he came to stand behind the couch with Steve and Nat and simply stared at the video in awe for a moment before saying, "Fucking hell, Barnes. You're kid is like a jack of all trades. What else can she do? Can she play the harmonica or flute? What about the piano? Oh god, tell me that she can play the _piano_!" Tony was starting to sound excited now.

Most likely because he still had his late mother's piano and had been dying for it to be put to use again for a while.

Steve and the others knew that Tony had tried to play it a few times himself when he especially missed Maria. But had never really managed to get any of the music right. After which he'd get really depressed and lock himself away for a week or so without bothering to check in or come out even once for food or even his beloved coffee.

So naturally he would be excited at the prospect of _someone_, maybe, being able to play the instrument.

Wanda's eyes flashed red for a moment as a small smile tugged at her lips and she simply said, "Why not ask her at dinner. She's planning to eat with us unless she stays upset a bit longer."

"Thanks for the tip," Tony said before then giving her a playful push and saying, "And you really need to stay out of her head."

"I know," Wanda hadn't exactly meant to. But Ichigo's thoughts were all over the place and were more than a little bit _chaotic_ and difficult to ignore. "But she's thinking rather loudly and her thoughts are difficult to completely tune out."

"Oh... Well try not to make a habit of it."

"I'm doing my best." Wanda muttered. Though she didn't bother to mention that Ichigo occasionally tended to reach out for her along the mental pathways that Wanda had opened between them. She saw no need to tell any one that since the girl wanted it to be a secret. Just in case something happened and they needed to relay information to one another.

Which Wanda found...terribly_ interesting_ for certain reasons that she didn't dare to name. If she did, she might give in to temptation and go poking around in the girl's head again. And she really was trying to keep that to a minimum for privacies sake.

Especially since the last time she'd tried it, Ichigo had laid several, questionable, traps for her.

Who the hell visualizes a dragon guarding an entry way to their mind anyways? And a buick sized beartrap? And a hoard of flesh eating, _mutated,_ zombies? And land swimming sharks? And Tony's bare naked _ass- _which had disturbingly talked!

In all honesty, if Wanda wasn't very aware of the fact that Ichigo was toying with her whenever she went poking around in her head- she would swear up and down that the girl was mentally ill or something. Sure they both got a little bit of a laugh out of Ichigo's terrible 'guards' but that wasn't the point.

"So...she'll be down for dinner?" Bucky asked in an uncertain tone as he finally tore his eyes away from the video that Friday was projecting for them.

"Yes."

"Do you know what she might want for dinner?" Tony asked this time. Apparently intending to use what Ichigo wanted to eat as a way to butter her up so that he could ask about the piano thing.

"No. But she isn't a very picky eater."

"We can work with that," Tony said before then saying, "How about...hamburgers? Everyone likes those right?"

"We can definitely do burgers." Steve said thoughtfully before Bucky chimed in.

"Only if I cook em!"

"Damn," Steve muttered under his breath before sighing and reluctantly saying, "Okay, Bucky cooks them. Buck- go ahead and check and see what stuff we need for a full burger dinner and make a list for me. I'll...go to the store and grab what we're missing and as well as some other stuff."

"We need lettuce!" Nat called from the kitchen. Having practically run and jumped the counter just to get there first. "And cheese, and tomato's and onion- scratch that Steve. We need everything! Including buns, mayo, mustard, ketchup-"

"Blasphemer. My cooking doesn't need any damn ketchup." Bucky muttered darkly. Earning a few sniggers of amusement from Wanda and Tony.

"It does if Steve is going to pick up some fries to fix with the burgers," Nat called out absently before then calling out, "You might want to pick up some soda or something for Ichigo too."

Steve sighed and cast Bucky an aggrieved look and then muttered, "I'll be back in a bit." And then made his way to the door to go and get everything mentioned as Tony called out,

"Don't forget the chips! Barbeque flavored!"

Steve waved his hand to show that he'd heard him as he walked out of the room to run his errand. The sooner he got everything, the sooner that he could return and relax a little bit until later since he figured that Bucky would need some encouragement to apologize to Ichigo for overstepping about school and not taking her feelings into consideration any.


	15. Chapter 15

It was really, _really_ funny to watch Tony try to butter up Ichigo by plying the girl with more food than any one teenage girl should have the stomach to handle without making herself ill. And yet...Ichigo had shockingly managed to already put away three plates of fries, six- well, she was working on her seventh burger with all the fixins- as well as several glasses of pop and four helpings of chips.

And of course, by this time, everyone was staring at her expectantly. Anticipating the moment when she finally hit her food limit and possibly threw up on Tony. And Tony, by this point was looking more than a little bit unnerved because he was probably expecting the same thing as everyone else.

"So let me get this straight," Ichigo said once she swallowed what she had been chewing on for the past minute or so. "You are plying me with food in an effort to figure out whether or not I can play the piano?"

"Uh..." Was about as far as Tony got before having to switch to simply nodding his head as she rolled her eyes at him and then reached out and stole what was left of the barbeque chips in his hand.

"Why do you wanna know?"

Tony straightened up in his seat a little bit upon hearing her ask that and quickly launched into a story of how his mom used to play for him when he was younger, and how now that she was gone, he regretted that he'd never learned since he tended to miss her a lot as well as miss the sound of her playing the instrument.

Ichigo just hummed thoughtfully once he finished his little story and regarded him carefully for a moment before he suddenly said, "I can pay you-" Everyone at the table groaned in exasperation. They had known that he would resort to bribery if she didn't feel that the food alone was incentive enough to answer him. Still...he probably shouldn't have brought up the fact that he could pay her. Especially after they'd all heard her play on the video earlier since it was more than obvious that she had _some_ musical talent. "I mean, if you want anyways. If you can play the piano, I could even employ you to play for me. How does five hundred dollars an hour sound?"

Ichigo frowned at him a little bit. And since her expression didn't look that favorable to him, Tony tried again while trying to keep his tone from sounding too desperate. "A thousand dollars an hour? Three thousand an hour?"

"Calm down," Ichigo finally said after a moment or so of silence. "I'm not saying yes, and I'm not saying no either. I need to know what kind of piano you're wanting me to play first."

Tony's face lit up like Christmas had just come early and he quickly had Friday pull up a life sized holographic image of his mother's piano for her to check out.

Ichigo politely set her food side and excused herself for several minutes so that she could study the holographic image before finally saying slowly, "It's a bit bigger and fancier than I'm used too. But if I can familiarize myself with the keys first, I might be able too."

Tony jumped out of his seat with a loud whoop and then upon regaining control of himself sat back down to negotiate how much money she wanted for playing for him as she retook her seat and waved away his offers before finally telling him that she'd play for free since she found music relaxing.

Tony was positively giddy and then asked her if she would mind playing after dinner and upon getting her affirmative, he raced from the room as fast as he could to go and tune the instrument and find some chairs for himself and everyone else.

"I...just signed up for something that he's going to drag me too often, huh?" She asked in an slightly uneasy tone. They just laughed at her before Steve said in an amused tone.

"He'll be dragging you off to play for him everyday for a good long while."

"It's true," Bruce chimed in next with a smile. "He'll make special trips to drag you away to play for him. I might even join him some, if you can play anything good."

"I can play anything that comes to mind," Ichigo said dryly. "Including a lot of stuff that I just hear."

Nat perked up slightly in her seat and asked in an interested tone, "_Really?_ You can play stuff that you hear?"

"Yeah." Ichigo confirmed after a moment or so before Wanda asked,

"What songs? I mean, can you play classical? Modern? Alternative?"

"I can play a little bit of everything."

"Shit..." Bruce said as something seemed to occur to him before then saying, "You're a prodigy aren't you." Everyone practically began talking all at once then. Mostly asking her questions over each other, but a few- like Bucky and Steve- wanted to know what else she could do aside from simply play music from just hearing a song once.

And she wasn't going to lie, her new dad and uncle looked particularly excited at the prospect of maybe finding what else she could do.

Ichigo thinned her lips a little bit in displeasure upon hearing the word prodigy being casually tossed around so carelessly and wanted to snap at them all. She was anything _but_ a prodigy. She could just do stuff because she simply had a really good memory. That wasn't anything particularly special.

Certainly nothing for anyone to be excited about.

Clint was the first one to realize just how uncomfortable she was and made quick work of shutting everyone else up with a loud, ear splitting whistle that caused everyone to either wince or cringe a little bit before he finally told everyone to shut the hell up.

His eyes never leaving Ichigo as she pushed what was left of her unfinished food away and then quietly excused herself and got up to leave just as Tony was walking back in.

"Okay, everything is set up. Is everyone going to come with?"

"We wouldn't miss it for the world Tony." Clint said as he slowly stood up and walked over to Ichigo and grabbed her hand in one of his own and gently tugged her along behind him as everyone else took a moment to try and figure out just what the hell had happened before quickly vacating their own seats to follow them.

* * *

To say that they were impressed a little while later by Ichigo's playing would be an understatement. Seriously the girl played the large piano like a pro. Which was great. Tony was certainly on cloud nine.

So much so that he asked her, once she finished, if she would mind playing at an upcoming charity gala that he was hosting.

Ichigo had- understandably _balked_ a little bit at the request- but had told him carefully that she would think about it before quickly scampering off to god knew where to hide herself just in case someone else wanted something from her.

"Barnes, if she agrees to play at the gala, I _will_ be paying her for her services." Tony said firmly, feeling a little bit bad about putting the poor kid on the spot like that. But at the same time it was incredibly rare that people managed to impress him with anything.

And he was so damned impressed by her at the moment that he couldn't help but want to show her off a little bit. Or rather he wanted to show off her musical skills anyways.

Bucky gave him a little finger wave to indicate that he'd heard him and watched as the genius walked off humming one of the tunes that his girl had played for them.

Which left Bucky, and Steve alone since everyone else had pretty much scrammed too once Ichigo had finished playing. Even Clint was oddly missing. Though they were fairly certain that he had slipped off somewhere to spy on Ichigo. And as irking as it was to admit, Bucky was slightly grateful to the man for his odd- and slightly stalkerish habits towards his kid.

As long as he didn't do any touching, petting, kissing, ect…then he'd let Clint live a little bit longer.

Feeling Steve elbow him in the ribs Bucky looked at his friend for a moment as the blond asked, "How are you going to apologize to Ichigo for the whole school thing?"

He scowled for a second, "I have no clue, Stevie. The kid isn't exactly likely to appreciate me trying to be affectionate with her. And she probably won't like flowers or candy either."

"You're apologizing to her Buck- not trying to date her. Just...be yourself and tell her that your sorry and _mean_ it." Steve said firmly despite how soft his tone was. Bucky huffed for a moment and then nodded his head soberly and walked off to finally get his apology to the girl out of the way.

But first, he was going to go by the common room and get some ice cream. Because as far as he knew, dames still tended to like ice cream. And he was really, really hoping that Ichigo wasn't so different from the rest of her gender that she could turn away a nice bowl of the frozen treat.

After all, after what he'd done- he'd need to butter her up somehow and after watching Tony ply her with food before, he was going to try the man's tactic out for himself. If it didn't work...he'd get her a puppy or something.

Dames liked puppies and kittens right?

You know now that he thought about it- maybe he should go by a pet store too. Nothing said 'forgive me' quite like a puppy/kitty and ice cream combo. Especially since at least one of those things could be used against you as furry, needy, little weapons of semi mass destruction.


	16. Chapter 16

Bucky had made a grievous error. Truly he had. And the entire fault of it lie totally with himself and his_ insane_ need to suddenly please- _suck up to_\- his new daughter for his previous errors.

It had been two days since he had decided to apologize to Ichigo for overstepping about her going to school and stuff and while he'd been sort of putting the apology off- because he wasn't all that sure what to fucking say- because simply apologizing really wasn't as easy as it looked.

Especially when there was a temperamental girl like Ichigo involved.

Which was in part, _why_ he had made an impromptu trip to the local animal shelter. Where he found some really nice and adorable puppies and kittens that he had thought would make good 'forgive me/don't kill me' gifts for his little girl.

Because who the hell didn't like tiny, adorable little balls of cuteness and fluff?

He was betting that since she was a teenager and stuff, she would probably like something small to curl up with whenever she was upset or something anyways. Plus he'd done some serious research on the internet and had read that some animals had a very calming effect on people.

Apparently people tended to find specific animals very soothing.

Which would be all kinds of helpful with Ichigo. Especially after the recent upheaval her life had been put through.

So after wandering around for a couple of minutes, he narrowed down his choices between the pretty wolf-dog puppy with medium length white and black fur, and the pale blue eyes that sort of reminded him of Steve's own.

And a long furred, fluffy black kitten that had the audacity to hiss at him when he tried to pet it. And it's snuggly, sleepy little cream colored Siamese counterpart that apparently didn't give a damn if he wanted to pet it or not.

He chose all three of them. The two kittens for Ichigo, because they just seemed like they'd fit her better than the puppy would. Besides he wouldn't trust her with something that was likely going to grow up to be the size of a wolf anyways. Knowing her like he did, he suspected that she'd train it to bite him whenever she was pissed. And wolf teeth were frigging _sharp_.

So he decided that the puppy would be for Steve because he needed a dose of his own medicine, personality wise. Plus it would be beyond funny to him to see Stevie matching wits with the little wolf-dog since it was bound to drive him fucking crazy.

So after collecting all three animals and signing some paper work, Bucky headed back home to set the puppy free in Steve's room- cause he was betting that Steve would run out of there screaming excitedly once he saw the dog.

And he still also needed to get the ice cream and head to Ichigo's room so that he could hand her the frozen treat. And then unleash 'Spitter' and 'Sleepy' and watch her fight them for it since the first thing that the two were likely to do was crawl all over her in an effort to get to the stuff.

Grinning to himself, he made sure to stop by Steve's room first and did a quick check to see where his buddy was and noted that Steve was sitting on his couch, totally not paying any attention to anything but the TV. And quietly set the carrier with the puppy down on the floor and then opened it and let it go trotting off as he quietly slipped back out and closed the door behind him.

He got about five steps away from Steve's living quarters before he heard his startled oaths followed by a loud crash that could have only been the coffee table being overturned as the man stood up. Which was also immediately followed by yips and little excited barks and snorted and shook his head before moving on.

Stopping by the common room had been fun.

Especially since Nat had been there watching TV when he walked in with the carrier and the very loudly meowing black kitten, who's little friend was still snoozing.

Nat's eyes automatically zeroed in on him as she heard the kitten let out a particularly loud yowl of displeasure as she asked in a disbelieving tone, "What. Did. You. Do?"

"I adopted a couple of kittens for Ichigo."

"Why?"

"Because animals are supposed to help calm and relax people, and she sort of has a temper and it makes it difficult to talk to her."

"You still haven't apologized to the girl yet." Nat said with a scowl as she turned to face him while he set the carrier aside and grabbed a bowl from the cabinet.

"That's part of what the kittens are for." He said in a slightly defensive tone. The woman rolled her eyes at him and then made grabby hands for the carrier.

"Gimme. I want to see what hellish little felines you plan to _let_ the girl unleash on us all." She said in an overly dramatic manner. Bucky snorted and set the carrier down on the coffee table in front of her and let her open it. The second that she did, she had to jerk her hand back because 'Spitter' damned near tried to take her hand off with it's claws.

"Whoa! Easy there tiger," She said as she tried again to reach into the carrier after a moment or so to try and grab one of the kittens, only to have 'Spitter' launch himself at her face. Nat screamed and fall back onto the couch as the kitten used her to give it a little bit of extra air- and landed deftly on the back of the couch, with it's fur all fluffed up as he growled at the two _menacingly_.

Nat merely eyed the feline for a moment and then slowly turned her green eyes to him and gave a dark looking that suddenly had him felling very nervous and sweating bullets.

"Congratulations Barnes, you got your little girl a demon. I'm sure that they'll get along swimmingly once they've fully dedicated themselves to killing us all." Nat said sarcastically as she eyed him with disdain.

Bucky merely gave her a nervous smile and then said in a whisper tone, "Think of it this way, Ichigo and the kitten have a fifty/fifty chance of killing each other before they manage to kill us."

"Is that what you really think?"

"No. No it is not."

"We're so screwed." Nat sighed and then blurted out, "You get to tell Tony." And then turned and walked off, leaving him alone with the black furred little demon.


End file.
